Management Services Organizations (MSO) help healthcare practices pave a path toward greater operational efficiency and growth. When properly executed, MSO services help alleviate pressure by offering senior executive support, IT support, billing and revenue cycle management, and much more.
What is a Healthcare MSO?
An MSO offers comprehensive management and administrative services to healthcare organizations. They collaborate with private practices to streamline operations, enhance profitability, and drive growth. By leveraging their expertise and resources, MSOs can help private practices overcome operational challenges and focus on delivering quality patient care.
Does My Practice Need an MSO?
Say you’ve built a solid reputation for delivering quality outcomes and exceptional patient experiences. Your practice is growing, which is ideal. However, certain challenges are making it difficult to manage the day-to-day operations efficiently and facilitate sustainable growth. An MSO can help your practice grow without compromising the exceptional care and professionalism for which your practice is known.
The Benefits of Partnering with an MSO
1. Increased Revenue Opportunities
With their experience in revenue cycle management, MSOs can optimize billing processes, improve collections, and reduce claim denials. This results in improved cash flow and increased revenue for private practices. Additionally, MSOs can identify new revenue streams, explore value-based care models, and negotiate favorable contracts with payers, further enhancing the financial performance of the practice.
2. Marketing and Patient Acquisition
A robust marketing strategy is essential for private practices to attract new patients and grow their patient base. However, many practices struggle with developing and implementing effective marketing campaigns. By partnering with an MSO, private practices can benefit from a comprehensive marketing framework tailored to their specific needs. The MSO can leverage digital marketing strategies, search engine optimization (SEO), and targeted advertising to drive new patient volume quickly. This allows practices to focus on patient care while the MSO handles marketing efforts.
3. Efficient Operations and Scalability
One of the primary advantages of partnering with an MSO is the ability to achieve operational efficiency and scalability. MSOs have established systems and processes in place to streamline administrative tasks, reduce overhead costs, and eliminate redundancies. This allows private practices to focus on core competencies and patient care while the MSO manages back-office functions.
4. Streamlined Technology and Analytics
MSOs have access to advanced technology and analytics tools that can streamline operations, improve efficiency, and provide valuable insights. From customer relationship management (CRM) systems and data analytics platforms to call tracking and reputation management tools, MSOs can integrate and optimize the technology stack for private practices. This enables better tracking of marketing campaigns, patient acquisition, and overall performance, facilitating data-driven decision-making.
5. Access to Expertise and Resources
MSOs bring a wealth of expertise and resources to the table. They have a deep understanding of the healthcare industry, including regulatory compliance, revenue cycle management, and marketing strategies. By leveraging the MSO’s knowledge and resources, private practices can benefit from best practices and industry insights that drive growth and profitability.
The Role of MSOs in Private Practice Marketing
Effective marketing is crucial for private practices to attract new patients, build brand awareness, and differentiate themselves from competitors. However, marketing is often overlooked when considering operational efficiencies and growth strategies. To maximize value creation, an MSO must develop a scalable and comprehensive marketing strategy that can be easily implemented with new acquisitions.
So, what will a good MSO do for you?
1. They’ll Build a Scalable Website Platform
Digital presence is the foundation of every successful marketing strategy. MSOs should focus on a scalable website platform that integrates new acquisitions seamlessly and supports patient acquisition goals. One important decision is whether to adopt a branded house or a house of brands approach. A branded house approach consolidates all acquired brands under one name. This creates a unified brand message, and streamlines marketing efforts. A house of brands approach lets individual brands maintain their identities while remaining part of the MSO. A hybrid brand structure that combines the benefits of both is often an effective MSO strategy.
When developing the website platform, a modular framework that allows for customization on the individual brand level is essential. This ensures a unified visual identity and user experience across all brands while still allowing for differentiation. Since they don’t have to build new websites for each acquisition, MSOs have more time and resources to focus on new deals.
2. They’ll Drive Patient Acquisition with Paid Advertising
Once the core components of the digital platform are established, MSOs can leverage paid advertising to capture existing demand and fill appointments. Google Ads, specifically paid search campaigns, are highly effective in reaching potential patients searching for healthcare services. By targeting bottom or lower mid-funnel keywords with high purchase intent, MSOs can capture relevant volume and drive new patient acquisition. Remarketing efforts can also be deployed to re-engage warm leads in the middle of the funnel.
Before launching media campaigns, a well-developed patient booking experience is critical. You want the infrastructure in place to accept phone calls, process online booking requests, and provide a seamless patient experience. In some instances, a landing page can allow for new patient bookings while the rest of the website is being built.
3. They’ll Build a Solid SEO Foundation
Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a vital role in driving organic visibility and attracting patients to your site. MSOs should prioritize a strong SEO foundation for the website platform. This means implementing SEO best practices like optimizing site speed, using structured data, creating XML sitemaps, and removing duplicate content. A well-structured website architecture and optimized content are essential for ranking high on search engine result pages (SERPs).
Developing a robust SEO content strategy is also important. MSOs should create original, informative content that addresses the patient’s needs at each stage of their journey. Service and treatment pages should be prioritized, with in-depth information on services offered, conditions treated, the appointment booking process, insurance information, and frequently asked questions. By optimizing content with target keywords, relevant links, and meta tags, MSOs can improve visibility and generate growth quickly.
4. They’ll Conduct Ongoing Search Optimizations
SEO is an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and optimization. A successful MSO conducts regular technical audits to ensure the website is clean, organized, and adheres to SEO best practices. They identify and resolve technical issues, optimize site architecture, and ensure content is unique and relevant. Migrating brands from one domain to the MSO platform’s domain should be done carefully to avoid traffic loss and maintain existing rankings.
MSOs should focus on building a healthy backlink profile by creating link-worthy content and earning high-quality, relevant backlinks through outreach initiatives. A systematic link-building strategy can improve the authority and visibility of the website, positively impacting search engine rankings.
5. They’ll Integrate Analytics and Marketing Tech Stack
A centralized marketing technology stack is essential for efficient marketing operations and effective performance tracking. MSOs should integrate analytics and marketing tools to gain insights into the performance of marketing campaigns, patient acquisition, and overall practice growth.
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems like Salesforce can help manage patient data, track leads, and facilitate targeted marketing efforts. Tracking and analytics tools, such as Ruler, can centralize data analytics for marketing campaigns, while call tracking tools like CallRail enable the tracking of calls and conversions. Reputation and listing management tools like Yext and Podium help improve online presence and manage reviews.
By integrating the right technology and tools, MSOs can monitor performance across brands, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimize marketing efforts. This centralized approach allows for consistent tracking and monitoring of performance, ensuring a uniform and effective marketing strategy across brands.
Is an MSO Right for Your Private Practice?
MSOs can give private practices the support and expertise necessary to overcome operational challenges and achieve sustainable growth. With an MSO in your corner, you can optimize efficiency, increase revenue, and attract new patients. Through a comprehensive marketing strategy, MSOs drive patient acquisition, improve brand awareness, and position your practice for success in the competitive healthcare industry.
If you’re ready to take your private practice to the next level, consider partnering with an MSO. Contact us today to learn more about how our healthcare performance marketing strategies can help grow your practice and achieve your goals. Together, we can build a thriving and successful future for your private practice.