In our new Industry Deep Dive series, we’ll be drilling down into the ins and outs of targeting specific verticals, getting firsthand advice and tips from MSPs who are succeeding with specialization—and providing guidance on how you can too.
The first installment of this series looks at the healthcare industry.
If you’re looking for an in-demand and recession-resistant vertical market to target, healthcare may be a good place to start.
“They’re not going anywhere,” says Victor Magan, CEO of Network Brainiacs, an MSP in Arlington, New Jersey. “There’s always going to be a need for doctors and dentists.”
Medical and dental practices need you, too—not just to keep their networks running, but to improve their operations and keep them out of compliance trouble.
Get Started: Learn the Language
As you would for any vertical focus, the best way to show prospects you can meet them where they’re at is to understand their language. If you’re targeting healthcare, you’ll want to use terms like “practice,” “patients,” and “providers” when you’re discussing their needs.
This will also help you uncover their pain points. Do they need technology to help them improve patient visits? Speed payment and billing for their practice? Collaborate with other providers? Improve the Wi-Fi for a better patient experience? Meet compliance regulations?
Here are some common terms you should know as part of that discussion:
- PHI (Protected Health Information) – PHI refers to individually identifiable health information such as medical records, payment information, etc. PHI is protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
- BAA (Business Associate Agreement) – Required agreement between MSPs and healthcare providers’ clients per HIPAA regulations.
- PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) – System for archiving medical imaging.
- Chairside tech – Refers to the person assisting in the work done on a patient in the dentist’s chair.
- DSO (Dental Service Organization) – An independent business support center that contracts with dental practices.
Understanding the software and hardware that your healthcare clients use and the services their practice provides also “allows you to speak their language,” says Mike Farlow, CEO of ComTech, an MSP in Graham, North Carolina.
One of these healthcare-specific software tools is Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software—either cloud-based or hosted on-premise, says Farlow. “The major EMR providers among our client base of private practice medical clients are Epic and eClinicalWorks. However, there are numerous alternatives based on specialties or specific practice areas.”
EMR is often used interchangeably with EHR, or electronic health records, Farlow says, though they do have specific meanings. EHR is more comprehensive than EMR and allows for sharing across multiple providers in the same network, he explains.
As for dental offices, “they typically run on practice management software like Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, or Curve Dental,” says Magan. “These handle scheduling, billing, insurance, and records. For X-rays and scans, they’ll use things like DEXIS, Carestream, or Planmeca. On the communication side, tools like Weave, Lighthouse 360, or Solutionreach help with reminders and patient messaging.”
Other commonly used software tools include practice management systems, billing and coding software, telehealth platforms, compliance tools, and risk management systems.
Increase Efficiency with the Same Prescription
Developing vertical expertise can also make you more efficient, Magan says. Since specializing in the healthcare industry, his MSP is “able to fix issues much faster, because we’ve seen them a lot.” Specializing also allows you the opportunity to understand industry-specific hardware much better, due to additional time spent working with and training on the devices. Because of that, “when things break, it allows us to fix things quickly and prevent downtime,” Magan adds.
In addition, because industry-specific clients have similar needs, you can standardize your stack and processes between clients, says Zachary Hamblen, owner and manager of Orlando, Florida-based MSP Your IT Guys.
Farlow, however, cautions that while many clients use the same couple of software options, “you’re still going to run into those outliers, who are using [tools] that you haven’t seen before.”
HIPAA: Not as Scary as It Seems
Perhaps the most intimidating aspect of specializing in healthcare is becoming an expert in HIPAA compliance—but MSPs say it’s not as scary as it sounds.
“At first it was difficult because we didn’t know much about it, but after a lot of studying, we’ve pretty much got it down pat,” says Magan. “We do everything in-house, so it’s definitely part of our package. But we offer two packages: one for someone who just needs the basics, and the full package with HIPAA compliance.”
You don’t necessarily have to offer HIPAA compliance yourself, however. “We partner with a group that offers HIPAA compliance,” says Farlow. “We work tightly with them to make sure the technical specifications are met.”
Farlow also ensures that his MSP itself remains HIPAA compliant, just in case. “Even though we’re not technically a healthcare company, we do touch that data in some way. We also wanted to be familiar with the whole process.”
Your Healthcare Clients May Not Like the Diagnosis—At First
Convincing healthcare clients that HIPAA compliance is worth paying for can be challenging, according to Hamblen.
Often, he notes, “The smaller businesses either don’t have the money, don’t want to spend the money, or don’t believe that HIPAA is a source of concern, unfortunately. We’re always telling them the same thing: ‘We’re shoving you towards HIPPA compliance. We’re going to make you better prepared. But you guys need to take the first step.’ For the most part, small businesses are not ready for that process. They don’t have the staff, even if we’re doing most of the work.”
MSPs may need to educate healthcare clients on the need to spend money to protect themselves and keep their practices running. Referring to his dental clients, Hamblen says, “For many years, none of them had been introduced to the idea of security or having someone maintain their computer systems. And most of the businesses are small businesses, so they don’t understand what exactly they need.”
It’s also essential that your clients understand their risk. “They have to know exactly what they’re paying for,” says Magan. “You don’t want them to think that they’re getting the full-blown HIPAA compliance package when they’re not. It’s about setting expectations and drawing boundaries from the beginning. This is the real deal: patient data and personal information. [You want] both parties are on the same page.”
Hamblen adds, “A lot of it comes down to having to teach that niche what they need from the ground up. You’re trying to tell someone they need to spend money when they’ve never spent money before.”
RELATED: Why It Just Got Easier to Sell Cybersecurity to Healthcare Clients
How to Target Your Marketing
Healthcare is a tight-knit industry. Often, your clients will deliver leads just by talking to their peers—which means all you need to do to rake in referrals is provide stellar service. “They roam in groups,” Magan says. “When they get together for studies, they like to refer us [to their peers].”
“When you get into that niche market, everyone tends to know everyone else,” agrees Hamblen. “It’s nice, because almost all of our marketing efforts are put back into working with the same group of people.”
To broaden your reach beyond referrals, “identify organizations that you can get involved with and be vendor sponsors for, so you can get into those groups,” Farlow advises. “Getting hundreds of like-minded, same industry professionals together in one place that you can speak is the best way to reach them, at least for us.”
He adds, “It’s great for exposure. Attending events is where we have the most success, because we’re in the right environment with the right people.”
Some good events to attend include annual conferences for medical organizations like thr Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), Medical Society, and similar events for specialties like pediatrics or dermatology. In the dental field, the biggest events are the Greater New York Dental Meeting, Chicago Midwinter, ADA Annual Meeting, DSO Leadership Summit, and Hinman Dental Meeting. Dental groups to get involved with include the ADA (American Dental Association), AGD (Academy of General Dentistry), local and state dental societies, and DSO networks.
It’s also important to know who specifically will make the final decision on whether or not to hire your MSP, so that you can target them directly. In medical offices, the decision makers are typically the practice administrator or manager, the COO, practice management consultants, or the doctors themselves. For dental practices, usually the owner or lead dentist acts as the final decision maker. In larger or multi-location setups such as DSOs, regional managers or directors are typically involved. Office managers often are the ones to research MSPs and bring their recommendations to the owner.
Finally, tailor your drip marketing campaigns to their pain points. “We try to tailor our webinars, emails, and blog articles not only to healthcare, but all of our [target] industries. Using drip marketing like that keeps you top of mind, so when they have a need for your services, they know who to call,” says Farlow.
Premium Prices and Stickier Clients
Once you’ve established yourself as an expert in the industry, you can command higher prices, says Magan. “If you want someone that specializes in your field and understands your language, then you’ve got to pay for that.”
And if your service and support are excellent, your healthcare clients will be reluctant to change providers, says Farlow. “The most important part is delivering on your promises. We maintain a 99% client retention rate, year after year, without contracts, because we know we have to do a good job or the client could pick up and leave. So we make sure we always have a sense of urgency to do things right and knock out the problem the first time, not have repeat issues, and have fair pricing. When you do those things together, there’s no reason for anyone to leave.”
Hamblen agrees. “It’s very rare that we have clients leave,” he says. “We have stickiness across the board. A client recently told me that they have such a long-standing relationship with our company, they haven’t even bothered getting other price quotes. They just take our advice. I find that’s really valuable.”
Now, Take the First Step
The first step is simply getting your foot in the door. “You only need one. That’s the reality,” says Magan. “I’m not necessarily recommending this, but when we got our first [healthcare client], we gave them a discounted price because we wanted to get in [the niche] and try to get a testimonial.”
Do be prepared for a learning curve, however. “It’s definitely ambitious,” says Hamblen. “You can’t just walk in the door and expect to get up to speed right away. It takes time. It takes building large-scale relationships, across your area, to fully get [embedded] into that market.”
Stay tuned for our next industry deep dive, which will cover the ins and outs of the nonprofit industry.
