Partnering with OB/Gyn

[Alexei]

About a month ago, I was called by a very prestigious OB/Gyn clinic here in town. They are expanding their women's services and want to include prenatal massage in their facility one day a week. The office manager asked me to email over a proposal and see what arrangement we could come up with.

I sent over all of our education and specialty information as well as marketing info for the 'partnership' (although we don't use that word, we use 'joined forces with', etc). I also stated the importance of keeping the fees the same as what we charge in our office so that there won't be any competition at either location. I pay my therapists 70%, so I asked for 80% plus they pay for all marketing. This way my MTs still get their cut, the business makes some and they make some as well because we provide all of our stuff.

There was no negotiation. They accepted the proposal as-is and I am ***THRILLED*** to say that we are working together, they are promoting us like crazy and we start next week.

This is a great opportunity for us, and also to do our post-natal sessions and my real love which is working with women with endometriosis. and with physician endorsement, hey - that's great.

i'll be letting you know how it works. i think this is a great thing for all of us. although i don't need physician endorsement to know how wonderful our profession is, a lot of people do.

 

[neko_chaness]

So happy for you, seems like it's working out better than you could even have dreamed!
Yes, please do keep us posted!

 

[Gee G]

That sounds awesome!

 

[Maki]

That sounds incredible. Congrats!! :woohoo: :

 

[GaWgEsS xx]

hey, thanks for the well wishes & congrats!

today is our first real day - and the room is ***SO*** much better than it could've been!

i had my choice between the sterile room with exam table :shock: or a beautiful gold room with hard wood floors, low lights and volume control from the satellite! guess which one i chose? :

they are so welcoming and so excited for us to be there, this is just such an awesome experience to be a part of.

 

[Lutzkrieg]

and then, one of the physicians did an amazing thing on wednesday -

i got a call from a woman who said she was referred by dr. x. that he went on and on about how wonderful we are and went to look for one of our cards, but he'd given them all away so he grabbed a phone book, looked up the number and wrote it down from her. she came in wed.! how cool is it that the dr didn't schedule her at his office? she came to us!

 

[MaddyxPeace72]

That's so awesome!!!
And get over there with more business cards pronto!!!

 

[mariam]

Just wondered how this arrangement was going now that you've had a bit more time with it? Sounds like an awesome win/win.

Angela

 

[emaculentge]

Just wondered how this arrangement was going now that you've had a bit more time with it? Sounds like an awesome win/win.

Angela

 

[?Rachie? ?Liz?]

Tell the office manager, "You know - lately I've been getting some resistant vibes from you. I would really love to show you what massage therapy has to offer." And give them/he/she a free massage.

If they/he/she enjoys it you'll more than get your money's worth back in their changed attitude.

What is their biggest complaint? For me when I worked with a medical setting the biggest complaint was the increased office work becuase of the additional insurance. I volunteered one hour each Friday to sort through that week's EOB's and seperate the statements that had my massage payments on them. Saved her one step and she could more easily have my paycheck tallied up for payment on Saturday.

We would end up making it a "lunch date" each Friday and eat lunch in the office and it did WONDERS for her attitude.

Just a thought. Might not be applicable in your situation.

Angela

 

[peaceandlove<3]

interesting, the miracles that occur when mindset changes...

thanks.

i came into work and read your post on friday morning, and as i read the last word and thought, hmmm..... the phone rang.

it was one of the front desk workers from the drs. office saying we had 2 appts booked for the following morning.

what a miracle! we certainly weren't expecting that. it was great. with this opportunity also came many, many, MANY challenges and opportunities to discuss them and move forward.

the plan, since communication seems sketchy at best (i'm not sure if i told y'all about the marketing issue, but in a nutshell, they agreed to pay but when the bill came due for the brochures that were ordered, they refused to pay), is that the therapist who is taking this on and i are going to lunch today to draft a letter - an upbeat one - and highlight the following:

*we are excited about the increased interest in sessions being booked at their office, we still would love to come offer massage to the employees so that they may benefit from the session and be able to clearly explain what we do to the patients
*it would be helpful to establish more clear communications with the office/is there one person that we could work with?
*can we add them to our online booking calendar (as a separate location) so that we can be notified of the appts made immediately when they are made?
*adequate space: what that means, what we need - briefly why it is so difficult to massage a 36-wk pg woman in an exam room with an exam table in it (what happened to the other room?)
*pay dates (still haven't been paid from the massage in november)
*may we add other days beside saturday? we have at least one client who has mentioned that if we were there during the week it would be better for her.

i'm sure there are more but i think this is enough to start out on, since they are the most pressing.

persistence and respect pays off - hopefully i can write a letter that comes across with much respect and that i will receive the same. then after sending, i will follow-up with a phone call to make sure she received it.

amanda

[/u]

 

[Pompal 09.]

Sounds like an excellent plan Amanda, I certainly hope that they respond in kind and that you get these glitches worked out of the system!
Please continue to keep us posted!

 

[dairy queen]

I would like to ask a few question.

I am also going into association with two OB/GYN doctors in a brand new office space 6000 sq ft. Are the doctors you are working with doing any insurance billing for your services (if they are, would you know what cpt codes they are using) and then pay/reimburse you. Or is all your money coming as out of pocket from the client/patient? Are you paying rent to them? Or are you acting as employee or independent contractor.
Any information you can share would be greatly appreciated.
THANKS!

 

[Wilfred]

I would like to ask a few question.

I am also going into association with two OB/GYN doctors in a brand new office space 6000 sq ft. Are the doctors you are working with doing any insurance billing for your services (if they are, would you know what cpt codes they are using) and then pay/reimburse you. Or is all your money coming as out of pocket from the client/patient? Are you paying rent to them? Or are you acting as employee or independent contractor.
Any information you can share would be greatly appreciated.
THANKS!

they pay us 80% and the client pays out of pocket. not much insurance billing is done down here. and if it is, it's only in a PT office. i'd love to figure that out though. but we have a lot to get straight with them first.

good luck!