How to Bring Your Practice Exponential Revenue Growth

In the evolving landscape of dermatology and aesthetic practices, exponential revenue growth remains a perpetual practice objective.

In simpler terms, to keep the doors open year after year, providers must see more patients and perform more treatments, generating the revenue required for longevity. Navigating the intricacies of patient care, rising overhead costs, and the imperative need for a resilient balance sheet to weather economic anomalies like those in 2020 and 2021, the allocation of budget and resources to grow revenue can be an ongoing challenge.

Traditional Solutions

For most practices, the traditional solutions to revenue growth look something like this: Attracting new patients + expanding services + increasing fees = revenue growth.

ATTRACTING NEW PATIENTS

Year after year, practices embark on the treadmill of conventional techniques to attract new patients and drive exponential revenue growth. The latest benchmarks indicate that acquiring a new patient can come with a price tag upward of $500, covering expenses such as mailers, social media marketing, pay-per-click advertising, eblasts, radio spots, and more. 

In a world flooded with marketing technology, these methods struggle to capture attention as effectively as they did 15, 10, or even 5 years ago. Dodging instant deletion of marketing emails, tossed postcards, or a quick swipe right past your online ad is a formidable task no matter how outstanding your care is or how advantageous your promotion might be. As podcasts and music streaming replace radio, even reaching the historically captive commuter audience is a challenge.

While abandoning these traditional techniques is not an option, relying solely on them to attract new patients may not bridge the gap in revenue growth that the practice needs. 

EXPANDING SERVICE OFFERINGS

As we’ve seen recently with the explosive market for GLP-1 receptor agonists, consumers are ravenous for the newest, fastest, and most results-oriented solutions to their health and aesthetic concerns. Expanding your service offering to include what consumers want is a logical and strategic move that ensures your practice is attractive to the widest potential patient audience. 

However, expanding services, as a standalone effort, has a significant downside—it’s neither an expedient nor an inexpensive solution to growing revenue. The process involves time and money to procure the products, technology, and equipment; train staff; and market the offering (not to mention building an online reputation for expertise in this service that attracts new and existing patients).

INCREASING FEES

It’s a necessary (albeit uncomfortable) part of doing business. The gap in this solution is the “by how much?” factor. Fees that are relevant (not too low), profitable, and competitive in the marketplace can be a narrow lane to navigate. Realistically, fee increases (alone) are the least likely way to generate the volume of revenue growth most practices seek. The attrition of patients who choose to shop around or postpone their treatments due to a perception of affordability can mitigate the wins in this solution.

Reactivating Lost Patients

In dermatology and medical aesthetics, patients either proceed with scheduled care or fall off the practice’s radar in the form of no-shows, cancellations, or no response to follow-ups. For many practices, those who fall off become lost patients, despite the original investment and valuable data in the practice management system. What we know to be true is this: leaving it solely up to the patient to return is a plan for failure.

Lost patients need medical care and desire aesthetic services—and they’ve already shown interest in your practice by seeing one of your providers. Their medical history, diagnosis, treatment records, procedure goals, and contact details are simply lying dormant in your practice management system. The opportunities for both patient and practice are substantial.

LOST PATIENT REVENUE

Based on years of data analysis, National Database Benchmarks indicate that average revenue per patient per year in dermatology is $509.98. The data also show that the average number of lost patients per clinician is between 1,000 and 2,000.

So, let’s look at the revenue opportunity in reactivating lost patients: 

The natural argument that a practice couldn’t possibly reactivate 100% of their lost patients is fair enough. What about recovering 1 out of every 5 lost patients? Not only is this plausible, but it’s also doable, and here’s the outcome:

Exponential Revenue

Even with a conservative goal (1 out of 5 lost patients reactivated), the revenue growth opportunity is considerable. But wait; there’s more! The $509.98 average revenue per patient is per year. Let’s look at the exponential power behind reactivating lost patients through this case study:

A 54-year-old dermatology patient suffers from psoriasis. He ignored initial recalls from the practice and dropped off the schedule for 22 months. In 2023, the practice invested in a dedicated data-driven strategy to reactivate lost patients just like him. Leveraging the patient’s information in the practice management system, the practice expressed its commitment to treatment options via personalized texts, emails, and auto calls. Though texts and emails were unsuccessful, the patient scheduled an appointment after receiving a personalized auto call about 3 weeks into the process. During the appointment, the patient shared how different this experience had been from when he felt other medical practices had simply forgotten all about him. He received an updated diagnosis and treatment plan, followed by the clinician placing a mirror in his hand to do a quick facial skin check. Looking in the mirror, the patient confessed how self-conscious he felt about his crow’s feet and frown lines while on Zoom calls for work. The clinician, also in his mid-50s, empathized and talked about the natural-looking treatment solutions the practice offers. With a last-minute cancellation in the schedule that day, the patient received both a neuromodulator and dermal filler treatment and booked his psoriasis follow-up appointment for 6 months out.

The ensuing 5-star Yelp! review, annual follow-up appointments for his psoriasis condition, and anticipated future appointments for aesthetic treatments exponentially increase the projected revenue (not to mention, the patient’s wife and daughter both called to book aesthetic consults).

Conclusion

Reactivating lost patients is good medicine—patients receive the care that they need, and it’s a game-changer from a business perspective. By prioritizing lost patients, expressing genuine care, and leveraging data-driven solutions, you can differentiate your practice, boost revenue growth, and ultimately provide an unparalleled continuity of care. n

Joe Casper

Head of Strategic Accounts, Brevium Inc.
American Fork, Utah