IDS Weekly Tip : The Entry Fee

We’ve talked about entry fee, the fee to enter your office.  How much does it cost for a new patient to enter your office? Our fee is $79 for examination, x-rays, and CT scan. Why is that so important?  The importance lies in a couple of areas:

You want to reduce the barrier for a new patient to meet you.  If you use a fee of $200, $300, $400, or $600 or whatever we charge for all of those services, you have essentially screened out a number of people,  a number of people who can afford your services, but just decided that the entry fee is too high to meet you.

So if the patient doesn’t get a chance to meet you, how can you possibly provide service for that patient?  Let’s look at it a different way. A patient entering your office may be with you for 5, 10, 15, 20 years or even longer. There is a lifetime value to that patient.  It isn’t just what the patient needs right now, but what the patient might need a few years from now.  The entry fee is a potential barrier to that lifetime relationship.

So let’s reduce the barriers.  $79 seems to work for us. It is working for many of you across the country.  The free CT scan is very valuable because not only does it give you an opportunity to assess the patient’s situation in three dimensions, it is also an excellent way in which to present the treatment and the rationale for treatment to the patient.

So let’s reduce those barriers, that entry fee, so the patient will have the opportunity of seeing you and seeing you for the best service that is available.