Copywriter for Telehealth & Telemedicine

Top 6 Ways to Promote Your Telemedicine Services

1. Email – Write patients about your telemedicine services 
2. Patient Portals – Explain how online appointments work
3. Flyers – Put announcements in your waiting room
4. Social Media – Post telemedicine success stories 
5. Testimonials — Encourage patients to write reviews
6. Consultation – Have nurses tell patients at appointments

Need help attracting patients to your telemedicine services? Work with a professional healthcare copywriter.

Grow your medical practice by marketing your telemedicine services.

If you have a medical practice that offers telemedicine services, you’re no doubt aware of its potential to help you see more patients and increase profits. But it’s not enough to simply offer the service; you need to encourage your patients to use it.

Getting them to adapt to this new way of interacting can be met with resistance, especially by older patients who may not be as tech-savvy.

Promote your telemedicine services to your patients via an email that explains how it works or send information via your patient portal.

Telemedicine has potential to drive down costs and increase access to care, which all sounds great until you look at the data, and find that only about 10% of Americans have actually used telemedicine to make a virtual visit, according to one 2019 survey.

A healthcare copywriter who understands telehealth and healthtech solutions can help you write content for your website and other marketing materials that will attract more patients and encourage existing patients to give telemedicine a try.

Telemedicine Becomes Mainstream

In recent years, more people have found that their health insurance plan includes a telehealth or telemedicine option. If they have an ailment, such as a sore throat, rash or sudden case of pink eye, or perhaps need a routine follow-up visit, they can choose to meet with their doctor virtually.

It’s the next best thing to a 1950s style house call made by a doctor. The patient is seen by a doctor and receives medical advice without leaving the comfort of his home and there’s a good possibility the doctor is dispensing that advice from her own home. And it’s not just telemedicine, there’s also teledentistry too.

Some of your patients may be hesitant to try telemedicine so you’ll need to educate them on its benefits.

Telemedicine is especially appealing to patients who:

• Live in a rural area or far from your doctor’s office
• Have limited movement, time, or transportation
• Think they need to see a doctor immediately
• Require medical care while away from home
• Are too weak or fragile to leave home
• Are managing chronic conditions

Increased accessibility and the convenience of getting such care makes it extremely attractive to patients. It’s more affordable too, about one-half the cost of an in-person doctor visit.

According to Kaiser Health News (KHN), “private technology companies such as Teladoc, Doctor On Demand and Amwell and large health care systems can provide a doctor directly to someone who contacts them. Other patients may prefer a telemedicine appointment with their regular physician, who can use computer applications through smartphones and computers. All types of primary and specialty care and mental health services can be provided via telemedicine.”

Need help marketing your telehealth services? Get a quote here.

COVID-19 Generated Momentum for Telemedicine & Teledentistry

Helping to greatly accelerate acceptance of telemedicine was the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. With the high level of contagion of COVID-19, telemedicine became a way to see more patients while still practicing social distancing to mitigate the risk of it spreading to other patients and healthcare providers.

Health systems across the country reported a surge in telemedicine adoption, something that the American Medical Association along with many other groups have been pushing for in recent years. Even when the COVID-19 pandemic is completely over and life has returned to normal,  patients  are going to want the telemedicine option to remain available.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of telemedicine services.

Consider these telehealth facts:

• Currently, 45% of the US population, or 147 million consumers, falls within the addressable telemedicine market according a 2018 telehealth market report.
• Nearly 75% of all doctor, urgent care and ER visits “are either unnecessary or could be handled safely and effectively over the phone or video,” according to the American Medical Association and Wellness Council of America.

Telemedicine enables physicians to see more patients in a day.

• Telemedicine is expected to eventually replace traditional office visits as the primary method of health care. In 2019 it was found to be a $19.7 billion industry, an enormous leap from $440.6 million in 2013.
• Consumers are eager to incorporate new methods of interaction telemedicine, with 70% of patients reporting they’re comfortable communicating through text, email or video with their healthcare providers. 

Even before the pandemic, the Trump administration had been supporting telemedicine options. In 2019, it allowed Medicare for the first time to pay doctors on average about $14 for a five-minute “check-in” phone call with their patients. And telehealth options related to telemedicine video conferencing are gaining steam as well, such as:

• Mobile Monitoring — Tracking health data via a patient’s cellphone, watch or other wearables
• Remote Patient Monitoring — Collecting health data from patients and electronically transmitting the information to providers for assessment, diagnosis and treatment

Monitoring of a patient’s health can be done remotely with the right equipment.

• Store-and-Forward Telehealth Technologies — Capturing, storing and transmitting patient health information such as CAT scans, MRIs and X-rays to providers

The key premise you’ll want to write about in your marketing materials is simple: Telehealth, and specifically telemedicine can deliver the right care at the right time in the right place for patients using real-time interaction through online portals and remote monitoring.

Using telemedicine, you can reach out for patients beyond your immediate local area.

Grow Your Practice with Telemedicine 

A practice offering telemedicine can attract a whole new population of patients and greatly increase revenue. It enables doctors to go beyond the borders of their towns or cities.

With more patients being diagnosed in less time, it’s easy to see how telemedicine boosts profits. Physician practices can save on office costs, including staffing, utilities and rent.

One hospital reported that it saves $86.64 every time a patient uses online services instead of visiting the ER or urgent care. But the savings aren’t just exclusive to healthcare providers; patients spend less on travel and other costs related to health care as well.

Encouraging patients to reach out via telemedicine rather than heading to an ER reduces healthcare costs.

As the government and private insurers embrace and expand telemedicine coverage,  providers may soon be allowed to be licensed across multiple states greatly extending their reach.

Marketing Your Telehealth Services

All the benefits that healthtech solutions and telemedicine offer hinge on your ability to persuade patients to be receptive to new healthcare services. Here are some ideas that a copywriter or marketing professional can help you quickly implement to accelerate your success:

1. Information – Include information on your telehealth services in your informed consent packet. 
2. Email – Send out an email to notify patients of your telemedicine launch and explain how it works. Write colleagues and other potential referral sources too!
3. Direct Mail – Create a large postcard that can be sent via regular mail to your patients at their home.
4. Website – Add a well-written page for your telemedicine services to your website.
5. Brochures – Place a stack of brochures in your waiting room.
6. Flyers – Post flyers in your patient care rooms.
7. Consultation – Have your nurses inform patients of your telemedicine option while doing their initial consults prior to the doctor entering the room.
8. Social Media – Use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to talk about your telemedicine services.
9. Ads – Buy targeted Facebook ads to drive traffic to your Facebook business page or website.
10. Review Sites – Add your practice to GoogleMyBusiness.com, LinkedIn and Yelp. Then encourage your patients to post reviews, testimonials and success stories about their telemedicine experience.
11. Article – Write an article about the benefits of Telemedicine for your website, blog or local newspaper.
12. Blog — Stay in touch with previous patients (potential repeat customers) and new prospects with your blog. 

Each of these ideas can be easily executed for you by a professional copywriter who has experience writing about healthcare subjects. She can help you to increase awareness of your telehealth services throughout your practice and community.

You can write about your telemedicine services on multiple forms of media to increase exposure.

A Healthcare Copywriter Is Just What the Doctor Ordered

Making the case for telemedicine is easy. Write about how your patients can pay bills, order groceries to be delivered, request a ride to the airport, and shop for just about any product through their phone. Doesn’t it make sense that they should be able to move at least some of their doctor visits online as well?

Telemedicine has the ability to transform healthcare by increasing access to providers.

In all of your copy, explain how telemedicine is helping to:

• Manage chronic conditions
• Improve outcomes
• Reduce costs
• Expand access to care
• Reduce hospital readmissions
• Facilitate care coordination

Healthcare, like so many areas of modern life, is being transformed by the internet and related digital technologies. We are entering an unprecedented, new era of connectivity between patients and providers, resulting in more personalized, convenient, and cost-effective care. Encourage your patients to get on board.

Need help marketing your telehealth services? Get a quote here.

A healthcare copywriter can help you promote your telemedicine services to new and existing patients.

Work with an experienced healthcare copywriter to create marketing materials that will accelerate the adoption of your telemedicine services and increase your medical practice’s profits, making it a win-win on all fronts.

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