I attended a seminar the other day on healthcare marketing.  One of the focuses was to break down your types of calls and define what the key elements are.  So, today, we’re breaking down a nursing home marketing cold call and how we get past the gatekeeper. One of the first things to realize is that the relationship with the gatekeeper can be just as important as the one with the actual referral decision-maker.  If you screw up...

In the past week, I have had a unique opportunity to observe a facility with another company fall to the pressures of survey.  The facility had a rough history – staying out of compliance more than in.  A few IJ’s later, CMS has pulled the plug on their Medicare/Medicaid provider agreement.  They lost their certification.  What this means is that they have to discharge all their Medicare and Medicaid residents.  They have...

I had a friend call me today with an interesting dilema.  She knows an administrator who is in bedlock.  What this means is the administrator has a building that is dually certified – Medicare & Medicaid – and has so many long term Medicaid and private pay residents that she has no beds to admit a Medicare resident.  That’s great, right?  A full house; every bed is full.  Not so fast.  The Medicaid rate is much,...