What are the 5 Steps to a Successful Covid-19 Concierge Client Inquiry ?

May 26, 2020

How Not to Lose a New Client at an Inquiry

An inquiry is the most critical point in opening or losing a case. A successful inquiry means taking successful steps to increase your aging life or geriatric care management business.

The Desperate Calls You will Get

With many states lifting COVID-19 restrictions, in spite of COVID-19 still present, people will travel again. You will get desperate calls from adult children visiting older family members and seeing first-hand, how unprepared their vulnerable aging parents are if COVID-19 explodes in the fall or sooner. They probably will be reluctant to move their older parent to Assisted Living after the high incidence of coronavirus in these facilities no matter how many amenities they provide. Here are steps to success for an inquiry or any call about your services

Take These Steps to Convert Inquiry to New Client

1. You must assure the caller that your geriatric care management services can be counted on to thoroughly assess the elderly person’s and family caregiver’s situation at the intake, to provide a safe coronavirus plan for sheltering in place, if the pandemic, still here, roars back again, determine the level of care if that is needed and level of GCM monitoring to sell your services.
2. You sell these services by convincing the caller that you offer a highly personalized and compassionate approach to the family and older clients. This breaks down to gaining client and family trust that your GCM services are the very best path leading them the care they desperately need, led by a professional guide they can count on.

3. You persuade them that they will get unbeatable customer appreciation, you will exceed their customer expectations, ensure the quality of life for the older client, and offer a concierge driven service.
4. You explain how your hands on professional staff can make families relieved and happy because they understand they save precious time and overwhelming stress by using professional GCM’s.
5. You show them you can access all community services and resource options they could not find alone and are now available to them through your services.

6. In this one sometimes short call, you show potential new clients how your concierge care management service will solve their problems through -you the GCM being there for them every step of the way.
7. You persuade them that by scheduling the next step, a free 30-minute complimentary consultation call, you will help them make sound decisions based on reality and assessment.

The GCM sells all of this through this free 30 -minute complimentary consultation done by a compassionate and highly skilled professional the director of your agency.

Learn the 5 Clinical Steps to Signing Up These families

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Conquer Care Management Sales- 5 Steps Close the Sale on COVID-19Products

Sales have severely declined during COVID_19. Now that many states are lifting restrictions, learn how to increase your, clients, through all your products but especially new Covid-19 and telehealth. Sell successfully this and any GCM product in a 2-part intake. Closing the sale means the client signing your contract and giving you a deposit. Most care managers are untrained and terrified of this process. They are more terrified of going out of business with COVID 19

Learn the 5 steps to make and close a care management sale to get that contract signed, get a deposit, grow your business, bolster cash flow, make payroll, and stop you from being one of the 50% of new US businesses that fail after five years or one of

the 7.5 million businesses that will fail in the next 3 months from COVID-19

When?

Date Tuesday, June 23

Time 2:00 PM -3:30 PM

You will Learn

What are Covid-19 GCM Services you can offer

How to make the sale in the inquiry call -with a complimentary consultation

How to ” Identify needs using client” challenge questions” to find the problem you need to solve to make the sale

How to present your offer by selling solutions to the problem with a mini care plan

How to manage objections if the caller has concerns about price or product

How to close the sale with non-aggressive closing questions to have your contract signed, get a deposit, and grow your business with a new client

How Care Managers Can Serve Veterans on Memorial Day-

May 24, 2020

Veterans have not been well treated by the VA during this huge pandemic. The VA gave hydroxychloroquine, debunked as a treatment for COVID_19, to 1300 veterans. The number of COVID-19 deaths in VA facilities has soared to 10,000 to the very veterans who risked their lives and we celebrate on Memorial Day.

In spite of this VA Memorial day travesty, Geriatric care managers can be a huge help to older veterans to get VA benefits. With nearly 10 million veterans in the U.S. who over the age of 65, older vets are usually good candidates for geriatric care management services both now and in the future.

Unfortunately, navigating the services, supports, and benefits available to older veterans can be a challenge for geriatric care managers and clients alike. Services and supports for this population are available at the federal, state, and local level in addition to the service navigation complexity. The configuration of services received by veterans and their families is likely to consist of federal services provided by the Veterans Administration in addition to more localized services for older adults in general like those provided by senior centers, area agencies on aging, etc.

Benefits available to veterans and their families range from federal VA home improvement grants, burial benefits, medical care, respite, housing programs, pension, and even local benefits like business loans and discount programs.

Like most clients served by geriatric care managers, this population will need personalized assistance in meeting their care needs. For this reason, it is important to note that services and supports designed for older adults, in general, are also key resources for veterans.

While the VA is a great resource, don’t overlook the value and expertise offered by local organizations like local healthcare centers, senior centers, and Area Agencies on Aging, among others.

Find the many ways care managers can access hard to find VA services and serve retired vets.

Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition includes a new chapter that will help you help vets Maximizing the Health and Wells-Being of Older Veterans by Dr. Lenard Kaye, director of the Center for Aging at the University of Maine and Glenn Osbourne, director of the National Veterans Legal Aid Group . As an aging life or geriatric care manager, or senior advocate, learn how to to get an elder veteran the benefits he or she so deserves.

On Memorial Day, while abiding California’s Stay at Home Order, I celebrate my Dad, Harry V. Cress, in this photo, who was shot down in World War II and was in Stalag 17 when I was born. His lifelong struggle with PTSD inspired my respect for the VA GRECC program, who served him so well. But I am left now with disdain for the VA now especially allowing these Vets who gave so much and suffered grievously, like my Dad to die in VA facilities without adequate PPE -especially on Memorial Day- a day set aside to honor these men and women.

5 Things Geriatric Care Managers and Concierge Physicians have in Common & and How Do you Market to Them

May 18, 2020

What Do you Have in Common with a Concierge Physician

Concierge Physicians and geriatric care managers have much in common

They both serve must serve the top 10% in the US. because of Income equality

Geriatric care management and long term care are not covered by Medicare, so the top 10% can only afford private geriatric care management.

Medicare rates for the physician are so low, especially Geriatricians,(who are the lowest paid that they disappearing), is one of the reasons physicians have fled to a concierge practice. This allows them to actually see a client for more than 10 minutes and make housecalls where they can actually observe the most about the patient’s ability to care for themselves.

Both in Business, Serving the Elderly & Wealthy taking health care into the world of Profit.

The third commonality is Concierge Physicians and geriatric care managers both make house calls have small practices and spend time with a patient like an old fashioned doctor. More important they both know that you see the most about the functional ability of the client/patient in their home not a brief office visit

Small CASE Loads a big Similarity

The fourth similarity is the caseload. Concierge Physician has an average caseload of 50, while the average internist has 2500 patients. The average GCM carries a caseload of 25-35. But even that may be too high when serving highly entitled concierge clients. Wealthy clients can demand boatloads of attention, have more family friction between adult siblings and the older parent-based on too much money, not enough love, and no skills passed on to nurture when the parent needs care. This constant bickering or worse cut off and often elder physical and fiscal abuse siphons lots of hours of the GCM’ s time to get the care that the older client needs. So large GCM caseloads among the uber-wealthy are almost impossible.

NO WAIT TIME TO SEE GCM OR CONCIERGE PHYSICIANS

The fifth kindred feature between the GCM and concierge physicians is “wait time”. Wait time to see your doctor in the US can be a very long time. According to the New York Times”A survey released in March by Merritt Hawkins, a Dallas medical consulting and recruiting firm, found it takes 29 days on average to secure an appointment with a family care physician, up from 19.5 days in 2014. For some specialties, the delays are similarly long, with a 32-day wait to see a dermatologist and a 21-day delay at the typical cardiologist’s office. But Concierge Physicians get back to their patient’s right away because of the small caseloads and the personalized one to one care they represent. Care managers, who offer gold standard care, generally get out to see new clients within a day. Both professionals go by ” Ask and Ye Shall Receive”.

BOTH TREATING COVID-19’s Hand of Death Reaching for Seniors

During the coronavirus both doctors and care managers, see their clients/ patients the largest target of the deadly virus, dying in deadly droves, especially in

nursing homes and are themselves overwhelmed by the stress of not being able to save or even see their caseload.

So when you market the Concierge Physicians, what benefits to do you offer that will allow her or him to refer to you.

We will use the “So What” that show benefits to any profession

1) You serve the same upper 10% with the same 1-1 hands-on excellent care “So What” you can support the physician’s patient without training

2) You do facilitation with dysfunctional families ( often in these patient caseloads) “So What” You will use your skills to get families to agree on care for the older person so concierge physicians will not have to deal with these difficult barriers to care

3)You will manage adult siblings who often disrupt older parent care because of ” Mom Loved You Best” squabbles “So What” so the Concierge physician can give the medical care the parent needs without hiring a social worker or trying to be one.

4)You can counsel families through technology through the fears of COVID1- and strategies to help clients cope with the choices they may have in the epidemic so what so the mental health breakdown of the aging family can address.

Join Me in My Latest Webinar

Conquer Care Management Sales- 5 Steps Close the Sale on COVID-19Products

Sales have severely declined in COVID_19, geriatric care management is not deemed essential business. Learn how to increase your, clients, through all your products but

especially the new Covid-19 and telehealth. Sell Successfully this and any GCM product in a 2-part intake. Closing the sale means the client signing your contract and giving you a deposit. Most care managers are untrained and terrified of this process. They are more terrified of going out of business with COVID 19

When?

Date Tuesday, June 23

Time 2:00 PM -3:30 PM

You will Learn

What are Covid-19 GCM Services you can offer

How to make the sale in the inquiry call -with a complimentary consultation

How to ” Identify needs using client” challenge questions” to find the problem you need to solve to make the sale

How to present your offer by selling solutions to the problem with a mini care plan

How to manage objections if the caller has concerns about price or product

How to close the sale with non-aggressive closing questions to have your contract signed, get a deposit, and grow your business with a new client

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How To Create a Team in the Long Distance Family During Covid 19?

May 16, 2020

OFFERING A COVID care plan product with Long Distance Care Providers

The first step for the Long-distance family members (LDF) worried about elder exposure and hospitalization of Covid-19 can be to take a team approach. This can be a call with a geriatric care manager for a consultation that will help long-distance families work as a team to keep elder family member safe while you are at a distance This Care management consultation can be done with a HIPAA-compliant video conferencing services

The first thing that the geriatric care manager works on is to find out if the older person has the required legal documents – Advanced directives, POA/HCPOA & GCM HIPAA release because of the risk of both hospitalization and death due to age-related COVID-19. If these documents are not present, the care manager will have a discussion with senior and the long-distance family regarding their wishes, explaining older adults over 65 are at higher risk for severe illness. The care manager will discuss who is to be the health care decision-maker with the older adult and suggest they consult a family attorney or elder law attorney to complete. If they choose not to use an elder law attorney, as time is of the essence in the pandemic, they can suggest access AARP advanced directives documents for any state which can be executed quickly.

If documents are completed, locate in the home and provide explanations to the family that they must give a copy to emergency contacts and physicians as required and place in planning binder. In the planning “Go binder” list all emergency contacts with phone numbers/e-mail addresses – family, friends, physicians, pharmacy, professionals providing in-home services. Also, list all medications and prescribing physicians in “Go Binder”. Upload documents into caregiving applications like caring village.com so the long-distance from always has the updated documents.

Join my new GCM on Line Classes Working on Covid- 19

This research was done by my geriatric care management student GCM Maryann Prudhomme. My students are working on Covid-19 products in both all of my two new online classes in blackboard right now. If you are interested in joining our class and

learning tools to be a geriatric care manager go to cathycress.com online classes

Join Me in My New Free Webinar

Conquer Care Management Sales- 5 Steps Close the Sale on COVID-19 Products

Sales have severely declined in COVID_19. Learn how to increase your, clients, through all your products but especially new Covid-19 and telehealth. Sell Successfully

this and any GCM product in a 2-part intake. Closing the sale means the client signing your contract and giving you a deposit. Most care managers are untrained and terrified of this process. They are more terrified of going out of business with COVID 19

When?

Date Tuesday, June 23

Time 2:00 PM -3:30 PM

You will Learn

What are Covid-19 GCM Services you can offer

How to make the sale in the inquiry call -with a complimentary consultation

How to ” Identify needs using client” challenge questions” to find the problem you need to solve to make the sale

How to present your offer by selling solutions to the problem with a mini care plan

How to manage objections if the caller has concerns about price or product

How to close the sale with non-aggressive closing questions to have your contract signed, get a deposit, and grow your business with a new client

Aging Life or Care Management Intakes- Do You Know How to Make the Sale?

May 15, 2020

Do you know how to increase your slower inquiry calls during COVID-19?

It all starts

with having Covid-19 products, alongside your existing products and services. But the sale is made at the inquiry when the client calls you.

Especially during the pandemic do you know how to sell over the phone when you cannot yet go to all people’s homes? Even so, do you make this fatal and costly mistake with a client inquiry? When you get a request for information, over the phone, do you drive to the client’s home to do the intake- without first getting a deposit and contract first? How does this break your bank balance?

Aging Life care manager Sally Sanitze received an inquiry call and drove an hour to see the client. After spending two hours explaining her services, doing a geriatric assessment then asking for a deposit and signed contract the older gentleman said he could not afford her services and would not sign the contract at that time. The Aging Life care manager came up empty-handed.

How do you avoid traveling for two hours, spending 3 or more hours with a client, and not getting the case or making the sale?

You do the inquiry over the phone with a complimentary consultation, and then make the sale and ask for the contract and the deposit. You do not drive to the client’s home without first getting a signed contract deposit – first.

Here’s how You Do Two Call Intake

You do a two-call intake. The first inquiry call to your agency taken by a highly experienced staff in your office. That person must clearly understand the client problem, prompting the call to your agency and crucially finding out how it impacts both the client and the care providers.

They then offer an appointment to do a complimentary consultation for 30 minutes scheduled within 24 hours, made for the agency director.

What To Do in the Complementary Consultation

Do briefly outline how you are an expert at solving the problems (moving,keeping at home, COVID-19 safety in an elder’s home or home from the hospital with Covid-19)
Do a mini care plan showing exactly how you would solve the client ‘sand care providers problem outlined in the first inquiry call
Do make the sale by asking the client if they are ready to move forward with a contract and deposit
If they say yes send out a contract through Adobe and get a deposit through Pay Pal.

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