AXiOM Associates Adding Staff In Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS - Aug. 26, 2013 - PRLog -- AXiOM Associates, a Las Vegas based healthcare business development consulting firm is adding development consultants and support staff to accommodate the demand of professional medical practices seeking an edge with their public relations and appeal and growth strategies.

According to Trent McCallson, President of AXiOM Associates, “The healthcare landscape is changing in every market segment.  Change resulting in a major system wide overhaul is coming and that cannot be argued.” From healthcare policy that is driving market consolidation to ancillary healthcare service providers foraging for business outside their traditional channels, the looming changes are disruptive to a level never before seen in healthcare. “For healthcare business owners, this means that if you’re not innovating your products or services you’re soon to be either a bystander or a victim of a changing ecosystem. There are clearly two choices: Differentiate and forge ahead, or be swept away by the flash flood and pray your business finds safety downstream. Business owners who find higher ground before the storm will have more options than those who remain in its path,” says Ismael Lopez-Ferratt, Executive Vice President of AXiOM Associates. “There are three classifications of healthcare businesses in the market right now: Those who are fighting for existing customers, those who are fighting for new customers and those who aren’t fighting at all. It’s a very confusing time for providers right now and AXiOM is reaching out to help those engaged in the fight to develop a winning strategy,” according to Lopez-Ferratt.

Traditional challenges to the healthcare business have included education to consumers, communication between ancillary healthcare providers, authorization and protocol for services, and exposure to insured lives. To compound these barriers, current trends in the insurance industry such as the HSA (healthcare savings account) plans with high deductibles are now adding a new dimension to challenges: Consumer choice.  To date, private healthcare insurers have offered access to patient lives by offering providers a highly discounted rate for services, and in exchange providers could count on an insurance company to drive volume to and through their door.  To many healthcare business owners, this exchange of discounts for access could be justified as a marketing and development expense. But just as insurers have become the driver of healthcare economics, the number of providers under any given plan has swelled and has saturated the market. In the HMO environment, the insurer can better control the flow of patients through their systems. This drove healthcare costs down but limited provider and care options to consumers, who, over time have influenced the creation of the PPO plan. As care and operating costs of the PPO have risen, so too has the cost to the consumer and to meet the ever changing consumer demand and cost capacity, enter the HSA.  In the HSA environment, patients are paying for access to plan discounts and providers on the front end and benefit from catastrophic cost and personal economic annihilation risk on the back end of a policy. Patients now have options but are many times out of pocket for their physician visits. And this creates a new barrier to many physicians and providers: Visibility.

It is reported that 97% of Americans utilize internet search engines to find, select, research and validate services they pay for. That’s great news for the mere 30% of physician practices who have websites in some pockets of the country. Physicians in particular have been the slowest adopters of internet marketing and SEO among all healthcare providers.  Physicians are unfortunately burdened with regulatory changes that have focused their efforts elsewhere, but this has provided great opportunities to providers who understand that the road ahead will be a battle for a consumer’s attention. Here’s what the physician is facing. 77% of patients used an internet search prior to booking an appointment. They wanted to truly know what the practice looked like, felt like, what the treatment philosophies of the physicians are, etc. 90% of adults 18-24 years of age said they trust medical information shared by others via social media. This means having a website is not enough to earn a customer’s business anymore. For the first time, many practitioners are realizing that they’re competing for customers… And since they will need people to receive and serve their customers, practitioners are also competing for employees. “Think of a great product that you won’t purchase because the customer service is so terrible. Ask Michael Dell how that feels about it and he will tell you about how he had to put an equal emphasis on competing for talent as he did on selling product,” says McCallson.

Read the full story on our site at www.axiomassociates.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/axiom-associates-adding-staff-in-las-vegas/

AXiOM Associates (http://www.axiomassociates.com) is a full service business development firm that focuses on growth strategies and action plans for professional businesses. AXiOM provides PR, reputation monitoring, image projection, website development, A/R analysis and profit recovery services for customers in Las Vegas, NV and abroad. For more information, go to AxiomAssociates.com or reach AXiOM directly at (702) 990-0966.