After working with 3 marketing agencies, Kevin Bein, D.C., a chiropractic orthopedist, realized that something needed to change.
Bein and his wife Caitlin founded The Rehab Docs in 2017, and the couple spent a lot of their personal time networking in the local community rather than working directly with patients. Digital ad spending was eating into their cash flow, and the team at The Rehab Docs knew there had to be a better way to attract clients.
On top of this, The Rehab Docs wanted to shift from a cash-based practice to accepting insurance, which would require electronic health record (EHR) support.
Switching to Tebra was a game-changer. Together, they mapped out a strategy that included a new website, focused on search engine optimization (SEO), and automate their workflow.
Within 6 months, Bein saw more website traffic, consistent 5-star reviews, and increased patient appointments.
Shifting to a sustainable marketing strategy
The Rehab Docs is a leading holistic and comprehensive physical therapy firm located in Charleston, South Carolina. Rather than just providing pain relief to patients, Bein and his team help reduce the likelihood of triggering injuries through retraining and long-term care.
“Our goal is to change people at the source,” according to Bein. “Instead of ‘band-aid care’ that only offers some pain relief, we want to change how patients use their bodies over time to get them to a better place.”
As they were developing a marketing plan, the team at The Rehab Docs knew they wanted to retain their unique identity — comprehensive, meaningful physical therapy that does more than give short-term pain relief.
But they needed a more effective way to reach patients.
Bein was working with a marketing agency to purchase digital ads, but there were two central issues:
- Ads become less effective over time
- Ads are expensive and can cost even more as effectiveness drops
At the time, The Rehab Docs was already using Kareo, a Tebra company, as an EHR system. When a representative from Tebra approached Bein with a strategy for a sustainable marketing plan that incorporated long-term growth, he knew he had found what the practice needed.
The answer was high-quality, unique SEO-driven content.
“The first place a patient goes when they are in pain is Google,” explained Kevin. “You’re going to ask who should you see? Who’s the best in your area? We wanted to get to the top of the search results for these terms.”
The shift from relying entirely on ads to SEO and Google Search changed the game.
Bein worked with the Tebra team to develop a new SEO-optimized website and marketing strategy that would create a long-term client pipeline.
“There were a lot of different players with the implementation. But I really liked the level of customization and the communication. Tebra was very transparent about the entire process,” Bein said.
A bird’s eye view of progress
Unlike previous experiences with digital marketing agencies, Bein could participate fully in the process.
Since each practice receives a dedicated Tebra Customer Success Manager, it gave Bein the opportunity to give input or ask questions. For The Rehab Docs, this translated into greater clarity over the web strategy and analytics.
First, the success manager spent time with Bein discussing site goals. Then, they migrated and optimized The Rehab Docs existing website, ensuring it was SEO friendly and that Bein could track analytics.
“Before working with Tebra, I didn’t really have a way to look at the numbers,” said Bein. “But now I’m getting messages all the time about ranking higher for keywords. It’s been really great to see.”
This combination of Google Analytics and web-based patient inquiries made tracking progress and new patient intake easier to manage. With the proper analytics channels set up, the team at The Rehab Docs now knew what stats mattered.
The best part? Maintaining SEO is an ongoing task. But the team at Tebra takes care of that, so Bein and his team can focus on patient care.
The Rehab Docs website received more than 5,000 visits in the first 6 months and holds 20 #1 position rankings for popular search terms on Google.
Improved patient communication
Patients benefited, too. The Rehab Docs used Tebra’s platform to communicate with patients. It’s one of the most popular changes.
“People love being able to type in their questions or change their appointment time. They use it a lot, making it easy on our end to get them scheduled,” Bein said.
Patients can use the platform for frictionless communication to schedule appointments, make payments, and ask questions.
After an appointment, the patients receive an automatic message asking about their experience, which provides valuable feedback to The Rehab Docs team. If the feedback is positive, the patients are asked to post a review about their experience.
Within 6 months of using this feature, The Rehab Docs generated 56 5-star reviews.
The glowing responses get added back to the website, which in turn, attracts more patients.
From cash to insurance payments
As the practice began to expand, it was clear that it was time to forgo the cash-only approach. However, accepting insurance payments is a challenge all its own. Working within insurance networks can also affect patient treatment plans and treatments. Plus, it adds another layer of administrative work.
When a medical office begins accepting insurance, providers have a mountain of paperwork to consider, such as:
- National Provider Identification (NPI) number application
- Complete the stands for Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH)
- Master billing terminology, like CPT Codes
Tebra’s Billing & Payments solution was a perfect fit to streamline the billing process. Not only can a private practice keep track of insurance eligibility and claims, but it also syncs with the EHR portal. Since The Rehab Docs was already using the Kareo EHR system, it made perfect sense to implement the payments solution.
“When we originally started using Kareo, we didn’t need all the nuts and bolts as a cash-based practice,” Bein explained. “We really focused on the scheduling system. But now that we’ve started accepting insurance, the billing features have been a big help.”
Moving forward
After the implementation, the practice has continued to grow. With the sustainable marketing initiative set up, Bein and his team have more time to focus on patient care. The improved cash flow has also allowed the practice to add and maintain a gym.
On the back end, patient communications and billings are accessible, compliant, and easy to use — for everyone.
“[Tebra] is great service for a reasonable price,” Bein said.
