If you’re one of the many doctors and practices that have been approached by daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, you may be wondering if there are any real benefits of marketing your practice in this way. We talked about whether Groupon was an unethical way to acquire patients for your practice earlier this year, and highlighted the fact that you are putting your practice’s brand reputation on the line by participating in this type of marketing. The American Medical Association believes that deal sites can harm your business if you are not prepared for the influx of new patients.

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We wanted to know what doctors around the country thought of deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial. Here are some of their statements: “If a dentist enters into a contract with an organization like Groupon, and the contract calls for a consumer to pay Groupon a fee and then Groupon keeps part of the fee and gives the dentists an amount of money and the name of a patient, this would be a violation of the Board’s rule and the licensee could be subject to disciplinary action by the Board.” ~ Patrick Braatz, Executive Director of the Oregon Board of Dentistry and the Board of Chiropractic Examiners

 

“So far there’s no provision for a Groupon discount as far as any CPT code so I guess when billing if any of it comes under medical billing in an office, folks will need to get creative and put Groupon right up there with co-pay for this style of business expands further into healthcare.” ~ OC Register Blog

 

“Groupon requires that you pay them a percentage of the fees collected for a professional medical service, and therefore it is fee splitting. In fact, I have called regulators in my state and have confirmed this.” ~ Forum Member on StudentDoctor.net

 

“It raises all sorts of ethical dilemmas to have people pre-purchase a therapy session through a third party. In this economy, it can be appealing to think that there are creative shortcuts to building a practice and getting people into our offices. But we have to be very careful in considering the impact of the new marketing and social networking tools.” ~ Dr. K. Holmes, Psycotherapist

 

Need ideas to promote your practice ethically and effectively? Talk to one of our PracticeDock specialists today! More content you may be interested in:

What do you think? Are sites like Groupon and Living Social fee splitting?