Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Daniel Goldberg, SVP of Sales and Growth at United Musculoskeletal Partners

Transcript

Daniel Goldberg, SVP of Sales and Growth at United Musculoskeletal Partners · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is Carly Beam with the Becker Spine
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  and Orthopedics podcast.
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  And today, I'm thrilled to be joined by
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  Daniel Goldberg,
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  senior vice president of sales and growth at
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  United Musculoskeletal
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  Partners.
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  Daniel, thank you so much for being here
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  today.
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  Thank you, Collie, for having me.
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  So before we dive into our questions, could
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  you just introduce yourself and tell us a
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  bit about your background?
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  Yeah. So I'm the, as you mentioned, the
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  senior vice president of, sales and growth at
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  United Musculoskeletal
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  Partners.
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  UMP has practices,
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  in Atlanta, Denver,
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  and Dallas.
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  My job is to,
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  grow new patient volume and improve access for
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  patients.
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  I've been in the orthopedic and spine practice
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  marketing space for about fifteen years
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  total. So that was, with another MSO prior
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  to UMP and then my own independent marketing
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  agency that represented about a thousand orthopedic and
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  spine surgeons across the country from about 2,000,
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  2,009
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  to 2,019.
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  Great. And I'd love to hear your top
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  three priorities,
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  head into the new year.
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  Yeah. I I think the the top priority
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  for us is reducing friction across the patient
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  journey. So a lot of times, care is
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  disjointed.
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  Patients will go
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  to one group or one set of providers
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  for for specific issues. They'll go to a
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  hospital based provider group for oncology or cardiology
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  or OB. They'll go to an independent primary
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  care provider
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  or independent orthopedic specialist for those needs.
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  But, you know, again, that creates friction. For
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  us, you know, we focus on convenience and
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  access.
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  You know, for musculoskeletal
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  patients, they need to be able to receive
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  care on their schedule, and they really don't
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  wanna wait days or weeks to see a
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  specialist.
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  You know, this is especially true with orthopedic
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  conditions because they often cause chronic pain that
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  interrupts activities of daily living, working, sleeping,
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  taking care of their children. You know, for
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  these reasons that patients wanna be seen as
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  quickly as possible so they can return
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  to their active lifestyles as quickly as possible.
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  Waiting two, three, four weeks to see a
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  specialist doesn't really provide them that opportunity.
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  So at UMP, you know, our focus is
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  on access,
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  but that's just more than just having multiple
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  locations in each market. It means, you know,
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  online,
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  online scheduling adoption,
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  call handling,
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  follow ups, everything that really goes into the
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  first patient call to their post op care.
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  So that's the number one priority.
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  The second priority for this year is really
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  focusing on embracing AI.
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  You know, patients are increasingly getting care recommendations
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  from AI answers, not just Google search results.
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  About 50% of consumers now use AI for
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  search, and AI generated
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  overviews now appear in about 60% of search
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  results.
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  So what that means is growth from an
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  orthopedic practice standpoint
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  needs to,
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  allow for AI
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  to
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  read and interpret your website and your content
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  and understand that it's trustworthy and structured so
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  that when a patient asks AI or sees
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  an AI search result for who should I
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  see for knee pain, that means your practice
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  is showing up in those AI generated search
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  results.
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  You know, what is now known as
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  AIEO,
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  which is search engine optimization
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  or SEO for AI,
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  helps prioritize those clinical expectations, local credibility,
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  and patient friendly content so that you appear
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  in those searches.
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  But that means
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  sort of,
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  shifting your strategy away from just traditional SEO
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  that was based on keywords
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  and now focusing more on intent.
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  So that's one way we're we're using,
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  AI.
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  Another is
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  to use AI to discover new audiences across
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  social media channels, streaming TV, and other platforms.
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  Now we know that not every patient
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  seeks care at the first onset of their
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  knee, back, or shoulder pain. Their research and
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  discovery journey may span the course of weeks
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  or even months.
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  We use AI tools and those signals to
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  allow us to build audiences
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  of patients that are likely to be in
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  need of, you know, MSK care. And then
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  we proactively get our message in front of
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  those patients so that when the patient does
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  decide to seek care a week or a
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  month from now, it's with one of our
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  practices because we've already built trust and authority
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  with that patient by touching them across multiple
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  touch points. So that's, again,
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  search,
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  social media,
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  print, linear, streaming TV, all the different touch
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  points that allow us to get in front
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  of that patient and and display our message
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  to them. That's what we're really focused on
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  leveraging AI to help us do.
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  Fascinating strategy that you're outlining here. And I
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  had a follow-up question for you, Daniel. I
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  was wondering
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  how you see what's the biggest opportunity for
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  AI to really help with, friction points
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  in patient access?
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  Yeah. There are several agentic AI tools that
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  can handle things like scheduling or rescheduling when
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  a patient calls so that they're not they
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  don't have to wait on hold to speak
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  with someone in the contact center to reschedule
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  an appointment or get directions.
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  So there is an opportunity for AgenTic AI
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  to help with that. The key is how
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  much do you want the AI tool to
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  do? Do you want it to schedule new
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  patients, or do you want it to only
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  do reschedules?
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  Do you want it to do outbound referral
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  follow-up, or do you want it to triage
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  incoming referral faxes? It's really a AI can
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  do anything.
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  It's more about what you need it to
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  do, what you trust it to do, and
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  what you can teach it to do that
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  helps you operationally.
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  Got it.
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  And, you know, you're obviously working with practices
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  across different
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  markets, states. And I'm wondering how you're thinking
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  about growth in these areas and what strategies
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  look like when you're working across different markets.
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  Yeah. Good question. So, you know, UMP
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  being the MSO,
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  you know, our philosophy is a mix of
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  centralized strategy and local execution.
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  Now from the marketing side, UMP helps create
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  digital front doors, optimizes call centers,
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  implements AI tools and analytics so the practice
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  can focus more on seeing patients and not
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  necessarily building individual systems.
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  But each market shares, you know, commonalities
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  but also unique trends.
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  One of the examples that I'll give is,
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  you know, in the Dallas Fort Worth market
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  where UMP has several practices,
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  there are new developments and housing developments being
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  built all the time. Mhmm. The influx of
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  new residents into these areas is out pacing
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  the growth of health care infrastructure.
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  We know that the these residents will likely
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  need MSK care, and we know what drives
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  them to make decisions.
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  But we have to be accessible to these
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  patients and new residents. So strategically, our evaluating
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  our geographic access points helps us drive volume
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  in those markets.
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  There are other markets
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  that where, the the population is stagnant stagnant
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  or not growing, but health care services are
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  exploding. So we have to evaluate that as
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  well. So it's really looking at the things
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  that work
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  to help streamline access and availability,
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  but tailoring that to each market that we
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  represent.
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  Again, access is the primary growth lever for
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  our market. So faster time appointment consistently drives
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  volume and creates advantages
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  over larger,
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  institutions or health systems.
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  Focusing on that messaging locally
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  and emphasizing access and convenience has been something
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  that, for us, has been proven to drive
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  growth.
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  And, you know, what do you think are
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  some things that all,
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  musculoskeletal
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  physicians,
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  regardless of if they're,
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  with a group like UMP
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  or if they're hospital employed, what's something that
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  all physicians should be doing to improve their
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  own reach?
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  Yeah. So I'll I'll give a few examples.
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  The first is, you know, understand how market
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  dynamics influence patient acquisition. You know, primary care
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  physician referrals have historically been the lifeblood for
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  many, orthopedic practices.
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  But as the downward financial and reimbursement pressure
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  continue to make independent practices struggle,
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  many primary care groups align health systems or
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  payers.
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  These employed or aligned models often encourage PCPs
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  to refer to other employee providers.
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  If If you're an independent group,
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  not employed or aligned with the health system,
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  this means some of those referral sources that
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  you've historically relied on may dissipate over time
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  because they're they're encouraged to, refer to their
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  other employee providers.
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  I think it's about 70% of US physicians
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  are now employed by a hospital or an
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  insurance entity.
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  That has a dramatic impact on referral serage.
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  So it's important to understand
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  the market you're in and the consolidation
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  in the market you're in so that you
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  can create strategies for your field teams or
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  physician liaison teams to continue to drive growth
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  both from independent primary care groups
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  and the employed or aligned primary care groups.
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  In some instances, that means, again, highlighting access
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  and convenience and expertise.
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  But in others where that entity may be
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  involved in an alternative payment model model, a
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  clinically integrated network, or a value based care
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  model,
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  it means highlighting cost and outcomes data to
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  those groups. So understanding what your levers are
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  in in either the employed or independent,
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  groups is really important. The second thing I'd
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  say is understand your marketing ROI ROI. This
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  is something that I've I've talked about for
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  years.
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  You know, whether the marketing is done by
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  an internal team or an external
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  agency,
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  having clearly defined new patient targets and metrics
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  for success
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  in the beginning of the year, you know,
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  we're in January now, is really important.
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  Clicks, impressions, these are these are good, metrics,
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  but understanding their impact on new patient volume
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  is what's most important.
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  Most practices should know their annual patient value.
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  So and they need a clear acquisition of
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  the cost per acquisition for new patients across
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  multiple channels so that they can justify
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  to spend on digital or referral strategies.
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  If you know that you you what your
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  annual average,
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  new patient value is, you can do a
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  math problem of what the cost per acquisition
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  is and decide
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  if this is a channel we wanna continue
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  to invest dollars in or we wanna reallocate
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  dollars or manpower into things that are that
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  are driving new volume.
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  This will help separate marketing expense from true
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  new revenue and create a clear picture of
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  ROI.
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  Yeah. So it sounds like really now is
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  the best time for physicians to kinda figure
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  out what their goals should be this year
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  and how to really attack those.
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  Yeah. I mean, most practices have a a
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  growth budget or a growth, growth target. You
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  know, it comes down to capacity. You know,
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  some practices can stand to grow
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  10% of new patients.
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  Some can only stand and grow 3% because
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  they're not bringing on new providers. They have
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  providers departing.
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  Understanding capacity and then setting your targets and
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  benchmarks based on capacity
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  is what they should be focusing on, you
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  know, in the beginning of the year.
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  Absolutely.
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  And then last question for you, Daniel. I
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  know you mentioned before that you spent more
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  than fifteen years in this orthopedic and spine
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  marketing space. And I'm wondering, Neil, are there
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  any lessons from, you know, past experiences
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  that you're still
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  working with
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  now? Yeah. I I think, you know, in
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  the fifteen years that I've been working with
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  orthopedic and spine practices,
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  you know, my job was always to drive,
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  access and drive new patient volume.
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  And as much as, you know, of all
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  the strategies I've implemented and changes I've made,
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  there's nothing more important than word-of-mouth, and that's
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  something you can't pay for. The example I
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  always give is
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  if you ask a friend or a neighbor,
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  you know, where you should get your taxes
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  done, they say, oh, you gotta see my
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  girl. I have the best tax girl. Or
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  if, you know, your car is making a
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  funny noise, they'll say, I have the best
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  engine guy. You gotta go see my guy
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  at at at the dealership.
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  The same is true when someone says my
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  knee hurts or my back hurts. Right? Someone
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  will say to them, you gotta go see
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  my orthopedic guy. You gotta see my spine
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  guy. He's the best.
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  That referral
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  has more value than anything we can do
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  digitally or anything else because that comes from
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  a trusted source, a friend, a neighbor, a
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  family member.
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  The goal is should be to create patient
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  advocates, but creating patient advocates starts with a
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  patient experience.
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  So from their first phone call to their
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  first appointment
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  to their follow-up care to their post op
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  care, that's what creates a seamless patient experience.
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  That is what will create patient evangelists for
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  you so that those patients go out in
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  the community and tell others
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  what an amazing experience they had. There's no
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  dollar amount that you can spend to make
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  that happen, but that's one of the most
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  important things
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  to continue to have a thriving practice.
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  Exactly. Sounds like an absolutely priceless
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  aspect of the of the job.
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  Absolutely. Yeah. It's one of the things that
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  we you can't pay to do and you
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  can't pay to replicate. It happens organically,
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  but you can influence it by ensuring
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  the patient has a positive experience across the
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  board.
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  Definitely.
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  Well, Daniel, thank you again for joining us
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  in the podcast today. I look forward to
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  connecting again in the future. Thank you so
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  much. Appreciate the opportunity.