Fertility centers often set new patient appointments and IVF retrieval goals without examining their relationship together. When we ask practice owners to state growth goals for new patient appointments and IVF retrievals, the difference almost always equates to a decrease in current IVF conversion rate.
It’s a common phenomenon in fertility marketing called Grif’s Law (until he discovers something cooler to name after himself).
IVF conversion rate decreases with large new patient increases.
Said another way, when practices see large influxes of new patients, IVF conversion rate often decreases. And most IVF centers don’t notice, because overall IVF volumes have likely increased.
When a practice’s new patient appointments are at capacity, but still short of their IVF retrieval goal, an IVF conversion strategy is necessary. There are four key performance indicators that affect IVF volume. Strategies for each of these KPIs are required to attain your IVF goal. Because an IVF conversion strategy is usually best when new patient volume is maxed, this article focuses on improving the conversion rate from new patient appointment to IVF retrieval.
Here are the points of the Fertility Patient Marketing Journey that affect IVF conversion rate, not in chronological order, but in the order of their impact.
Physician presentation
Post Consult follow up
Finance and Payment
Pre-Education content
Welcome Sequence
Patient Support
WHEN TO FOCUS ON IVF CONVERSION RATE
The IVF Conversion strategy is not the go-to strategy for clinics who are in start-up mode, seasoned clinics who have seen a decline in new patients, or those in high-growth mode. There are, however, three fertility center profiles for whom it makes sense to start with a focus on the IVF conversion system:
Maxed with new patients, but short of retrieval capacity
History of little to no marketing or business development
Prior to Wall Street backed fertility networks and Silicon Valley tech solutions, fertility centers got away with very little marketing. Even though the days of spending 0.5% of gross revenue on marketing are gone, investment in business development still feels alien to many. An IVF Conversion system can feel more palatable because it begins to pay for itself within 3 months of implementation. And after 3 months, it’s like the stock market; where returns compound the earlier you start.
Ready to sell equity within one year
If you’re close to selling all or part of your practice, investing in a complete business development system might not make sense, depending on your timeline. But if the time is right, investing in IVF conversion pays off handsomely when you sell. If you are under capacity in retrievals, you may lose multiples of what you could have made because of IVF volume’s impact on EBITDA. In our field, we use EBITDA, but consider the example of income real estate. There, they use capitalization rate. When a 100 unit apartment complex increases their monthly rent per unit by $50 per month, the financial benefit isn’t just the additional $5,000 in monthly revenue, it increases the total value of the property. It is the same with IVF conversion. You’re not just increasing your monthly cash flow, you’re adding sale value to the practice.
HOW TO INCREASE IVF CONVERSION RATE
We’ve established that there isn’t one magic demographic of IVF-ready patients and there isn’t one segment or one phase of the Fertility Patient Marketing Journey that produces them, either. No treatment, including IVF, is for everyone. Business people should never oblige clinicians to steer people to certain treatments. We can only show you how to qualify and nurture the right patients to move through treatment.
Physician Presentation
The greatest variable in conversion to treatment is the provider. Some fertility doctors are simply better at moving patients on to treatment. We can’t tell you how to do your job but we can share the common theme: physicians that convert patients to treatment give the patient less to think about.
Patients already have a lot on their minds. Equally rating each option causes paralysis by analysis. Fertility specialists who move the most people on to treatment give strong recommendations. They may summarize other options or plan B, but they clearly direct the patient to one treatment option.
We’re not clinicians and can’t tell you exactly how you should be presenting treatment options to patients. Some patients do feel they were pushed into IVF when it wasn’t right for them, and we never want that. We can only share the observed pattern across dozens of fertility specialists. If you are high on trait agreeableness, and find that you are less direct - you will likely need even greater pre-suasion, pre-education, and post consult follow up than the physicians who are more direct.
Post Consult Follow Up
Following up with patients in the right, systemized way, after their initial consultations, is the quickest way to convert more new patients to IVF cycles. The fear should not come in the follow up, but in following up the wrong way. The cadence and message is crucial.
The Post Consult Black Hole is a phenomenon experienced by almost every fertility center but understood by few. Practice owners frequently assume that the reason patients don’t return is because they can’t afford treatment. While finances are certainly a barrier to pursuing IVF, they are only one of nine reasons that new patients don’t continue to treatment.
All nine reasons can be uncovered, if not allayed, by appropriate follow up. When you appropriately reach out to patients after their initial consult, you
Support them in their journey
Assure them that you are the best choice for fertility care
Cue the decision
The timing of the follow up is crucial.
30 days post Initial Consult and/or Follow Up Consult
By this time, the patient has had the first day of their period. If they have not called you, they’ve put off treatment, at least for the moment.
60 days post Initial Consult and/or Follow Up Consult
This is to strategically check back in on the patient and ask if any further support can be offered, or questions can be answered.
To begin the Post Consult follow up system, you need to know which patients to follow up with. You must query your EMR each month and run two different reports. Patients who have been seen for the
Initial consult, but not completed testing
Follow up visit, but have not moved on to treatment
The follow up call is most effective when it comes from the physician. If you are low on IVF volume, take advantage of the lull and have your doctors follow up. In most cases, however, your REI physicians will be too occupied. The order of effectiveness from whom the call comes are as follows:
Physician
Advanced Provider (NP, PA)
RN
MA
Front Desk Staff
All are better than doing no follow up call at all. The follow up call is not a sales pitch, but an affirmation that you are invested in the new patient’s success. You are checking in to see how they are doing, and most importantly, what additional questions they have post consult. If the patient decides not to continue treatment, you have the opportunity to gather candid feedback. Patients are frequently delighted by this level of care and attention to detail.
Finance and Payment
Research by psychologist Dr. Alice Domar indicates that 42% of patients state cost as the highest barrier to starting fertility treatment . We’ve found that the obstacle isn’t always not being able to afford treatment but often a lack of understanding how to pay for it.
Staff
The financial counselor is the first line of defense in helping the patient with this dilemma. But a very close second is the staff that handles incoming calls and answers questions (front desk, call center, etc). In order for your key staff members to be able to tell patients what they need to know about paying for treatment, they need multimedia support and training.
Training your staff on how to answer pricing, insurance and paying for treatment questions is a critical first step. They need to know:
Script: WHAT to say to patients
Tone: HOW to say it
Cadence: WHEN to say it
Materials
During the meeting with the financial counselor, patients must have access to materials that clearly demonstrate options and pricing. Too often, clinic financial documents are filled with industry acronyms that patients are left to decode. Add separate line items for genetic testing, lab costs, bloodwork, etc and the patient begins to feel extremely overwhelmed. While it’s not possible to eliminate and decode all of the services, simplifying the document that the patient receives will drastically improve the patient experience. For example, if ICSI is required in frozen cycles, eliminate the separate line item. Instead, include it in the IVF package.
Pre-Education Content
“Deer in headlights” is how new patients are frequently described by physicians, nurses, coordinators, and financial counselors alike. Information about diagnosis, prognosis, treatment options, and how to pay for them, is usually too much for patients to process at once. You must help patients understand what they need to know when they need to know it.
Pre-suasion and pre-education are umbrella terms that encompass all of the content, advertising, and touch-points that happen prior to treatment that lead people to convert more. These are the videos and content about finance, physician personality, and what to expect about their journey with you. Taking a creative approach to these challenges increases available bandwidth in patients’ minds to receive the message. The more they know what to expect, especially if you can get them to look forward to it, the greater impact your providers and financial counselors have in their interactions. You must be careful not to answer the wrong questions at the wrong time. Keep their motivation on the end goal, but their attention on the step immediately in front of them.
Welcome Sequence
The information patients receive between the first time they schedule their new patient consultation, and their follow up, and how they receive it, affects how prepared they are to receive information in their visits, and consequently move through the rest of the process.
After patients book an appointment, a welcome confirmation should be sent immediately. While it’s common practice to request the completion of medical forms and history, the message that accompanies should be warm, inviting and welcoming. There are four key messages after the appointment has been confirmed, but before the patient meets with the provider.
Welcome from the physician, setting expectations for what’s to come
Finance and Payment Pre-Education
Patient Testimonial, encouraging the patient when they might otherwise be getting cold feet
Reminder of upcoming appointment / confirmation
Patient Support
Patient support helps to improve IVF conversion rate by helping to keep patients engaged in treatment. A study conducted by Dr. Alice Domar showed that post consultation, only 32% of respondents not seeking treatment (n=207) reported that their healthcare professional offered supportive services, compared to 61% of respondents seeking treatment. Connecting patients with peer and professional support also improves patients’ experiences with your center. Consider patient support as any ancillary service that can help the patient feel healthier, more confident and supported in their care. Divided into three categories they are:
Support Groups
Mental Health Professionals
Wellness Support
Nutritionist
Acupuncturist
Exercise
Every clinic should have a patient support content page listed on the website sharing all of the resources listed above. While it’s recommended to link to trusted partners, it can be difficult to always link to 100% of partners in certain areas (like wellness or acupuncture). In those cases, it’s recommended to have a list ready that can be shared directly with the patient or be available in their portal. On average, clinics see 5 - 10% of their referrals come from the wellness community when they’ve properly networked and taken the time to build relationships.
While not all patients will go to, or need IVF, strong support networks reduce patient drop off and increase conversion from appointment to treatment.
CONVERT MORE PATIENTS TO IVF THE RIGHT WAY
There are four key performance indicators that drive IVF volume and IVF Conversion Rate is only one of them. The points of the Fertility Patient Marketing Journey that impact IVF conversion rate appear across the four phases, not just Consult-to-Treatment. Strategies for Physician presentation, Post Consult follow up, Finance and Payment, Pre-suasion/Pre-Education, Welcome Sequence, and Patient Support are required for a successful IVF Conversion plan.
IVF Conversion should be the go to strategy for clinics who are too busy with new patients but not at their IVF goal. centers that have invested very little in marketing, those who want to sell all or part of their practice in the next three years
If you would like our strategies for the areas that improve IVF conversion rate, or you would like us to review what’s missing from yours, sign up for the Goal and Competitive Diagnostic here.