What Works in Therapy: Translating 40 Years of Outcome Research (Scott Miller)

Fill Your Practice with Managed Care (Catherine Auman)

Crash Course in Social Media for Mental Health and EA Professionals (Marina London and Michael Klaybor)

A few past and future WCTI contributors weighed in on the question.  Their answers below.  Your answers:  Waiting to be written and posted to comments.

Will Meek, PhD (willmeekphd.com)

Where did your first referrals come from?
My first referrals came from therapist directory websites (Psychology Today and Network Therapy).

Where do most of your referrals come from now?
My referrals continue to come from sources online. Those include online therapist directories and my website, which appears high in search engine rankings. Additionally, I have started getting people from insurance websites as well as from colleagues and friends of previous clients who had positive experiences with me.

Catherine Auman, MFT (catherineauman.com)

I started my private practice by getting on as many managed care panels as I could. This eventually turned into an average of two new referrals a week.During that time I was also building my cash business in any way I could, primarily on the Internet and through advertising. Now my practice is 2/3′s cash patients and 1/3 managed care. I love it!

Buck Black, LCSW (buckblack.com & truckertherapy.com)

Where did your first referrals come from?
In my office:  My first referrals came from people calling the group practice (which I am part of) and the secretary scheduled them with me.
Online/phone:  Google searches that directed them to my website.  I spent a lot of time increasing my Google rankings so this would happen!

Where do most of your referrals come from now?
50% from my website and my online Psychology Today ad.  Approximately 30% from face-to-face networking in my community and the remainder from referrals from the group practice and my ad on the back of the city bus.

Susan Giurleo, PhD (childdevelopmentpartners.com & susangiurleo.com)

First referrals came from colleagues–other psychotherapists, neuropsychologists.

Now: physicians, neuropsychologists, school adminstrators/guidance counselors, current or past client word-of-mouth referrals, my website/blog.

That’s them.  How about you?

• Where did your first referral come from?
• Where do most of your referrals come from now?
• What referral sources are you trying to develop for the future?

Take a second to comment–you’ll likely be helping out a rookie; you may even find yourself inspired to do some extra outreach.

Catherine Auman, MFT is a Los Angeles psychotherapist and managed care enthusiast.  She talked to WTCI via email about why.

What’s your background? What do you do now?

I’ve been working in our field for over 25 years in virtually all aspects of behavioral heath: private practice, psychiatric hospitals, chemical dependency treatment centers, residential treatment, and consulting nationally with mental health facilities. I guess what’s most relevant for this interview is that I worked for two years inside managed care companies, seeing them from the inside out.

I’m now in full time private practice that I built using the managed care strategies that I teach others in my seminars.

All the managed care options can seem overwhelming.  How do you advise people to get started?

The first thing is to learn more about managed care and challenging the misconceptions they’ve heard on the street. Most of these things, like the rumor that managed care companies are hard to work with or that there’s a lot of paperwork, are completely untrue.

What mistakes do people tend to make as they try to get on panels?

People often don’t know how to appear attractive to managed care panels in their applications. It’s not enough to just go to school and get licensed. To make themselves more attractive to panels, it helps to become “managed care friendly.” Neither of the managed care companies I worked for ever mentioned trying to save money or to shorten lengths of stay – both always instructed us to do what was right clinically. They don’t particularly like to work with clinicians who are hostile, or don’t understand how they work. I teach all about this in my workshop.

Some companies have a reputation of being hard to get paid by.  Do you have suggested list of good-to-work-with insurance companies?

It’s really not true that it’s hard to get paid by managed care companies if you do your homework up front. I teach people “how to get paid every time” in my workshops. That said, I’d have to give the “easiest to work with” award to United Behavioral Health (UBH). Most of the time it’s so simple: bill online and a check arrives in the mail.  Love that!

Any final words of wisdom for people trying to get happily to work via panels?

I love managed care – I wouldn’t have a full time practice without it. There’s a steady stream of referrals, an average of two new clients a week, checks keep arriving in the mail from what I bill. Most of what you’ve heard about working with managed care is a lie – there’s very little paperwork, the companies are easy to work with if you know how, and the clients are high functioning. What’s wrong with that?

Find Catherine Auman online at catherineauman.com.