Did you know that the effectiveness of BMA's Referral Doubling Strategy is verified by a controlled trial? How many marketing strategies in home health, physical therapy, or hospice can say that? As far as we know, the answer is one.
We gathered the Medicare cost reports of home health agencies using the Referral Doubling Strategy. We compared the change in annual census over two consecutive years to that of other home health agencies matched for location and size. The study finds that home health care agencies using the strategy are more likely to experience growth and that their rate of annual growth is 375% above average (38% vs. 8%). One of the Brazzell clients followed in the study more than doubled their total census during the study period. This adds to the anecdotal reports of multiple practices and agencies doubling their referrals using this strategy. Click here to download the full report: Marketing Effectiveness Review
Every year, Medicare-certified home health agencies must report all their financials to Medicare, and this includes census numbers. After roughly 18 months, most of this information becomes available to researchers. This makes for a splendid opportunity to study the effectiveness of marketing strategies. The availability of objective and comprehensive census data limited this study to home health agencies, but the conclusions are relevant to physical therapy, hospice, and any skilled health care provider that seeks referrals from doctors. This study shows that intelligent communications strategies implemented correctly can positively influence the referral behavior of doctors and case managers.
Positive results seemed equally likely for home health agencies in both urban and rural settings. Positive results also seemed equally likely regardless of the size of the client. Clients realizing positive results ranged in annual census from 50 to 5,892 patients. The most current and comprehensive review possible for this marketing strategy justifies the name, “The Referral Doubling Strategy.”
BMA named the Referral Doubling Strategy based on an initial success experienced at Southwest Virginia Home Health Care and two other doubling or near-doubling successes reported in later years (one in physical therapy and one in personal care). The recent study now provides more authoritative evidence that the Referral Doubling Strategy increases referrals in a very reliable fashion. Brazzell provides a free presentation explaining exactly how to conduct the strategy. Health care providers can request the Referral Doubling Strategy presentation from this page of the company website:
http://brazzellmarketing.com/HomeHealth.htm