Successfully build up a self-pay area step by step
Physiotherapy practice “Raum für gesundheit”, Stuttgart
A 30-year tradition – and the challenge of keeping up with the times
A practice with a long tradition in conversation with Pixformance: Founded more than 30 years ago as a massage and bathing practice, the physiotherapy practice “Raum für Gesundheit” (formerly: Therapiezentrum Heike Schaible) from Stuttgart has since changed significantly and developed further in its offerings.
On a total of 400 square meters of practice space, owner Heike Schaible and her colleagues have successfully built a physiotherapy practice, including an extensive self-pay offer. After working as a masseuse in the practice, Heike Schaible took over the business ten years after the practice was founded. In the course of this, she also trained as a physiotherapist and non-medical practitioner, and later as an osteopath, to constantly expand the range of services offered by the practice and keep her finger on the pulse of the times.
Heike Schaible
Owner of the physiotherapy practice “Raum für Gesundheit”, Germany
Practice Profile | |
Location | Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany |
Founded | 1987 |
Practice Size | 400 qm in 3 seperate rooms |
Main Focus | Physiotherapy, Sustainable Health Promotion, Osteopathy, Body-oriented Psychotherapy |
Employees | 7 therapists |
More Info | www.rfg-stuttgart.de |
Relief of therapists, more independence from health insurance services
In order to circumvent the billing barriers for services in osteopathy, Heike Schaible decided in 2009: Now to set up the first self-pay area. From the step into the second health care market, Schaible promised herself an added value in two points in particular.
“On the one hand, the self-pay area gives you the chance to have more time for the patients. As a result, we as therapists are naturally exposed to significantly less stress. On the other hand, we are also concerned with independence from the statutory health insurance companies, as the remuneration for us physiotherapists is very low. So both the patients and we therapists have a positive benefit from the expanded private offer.”
In a separate space, across the street from her physical therapy practice, she and her colleagues were also able to gain a foothold in the secondary health care market back in 2009. “So on one side, we have the physio offer as a health insurance and private service and opposite the so-called “Wirkraum,” exclusively for self-pay patients.
“It is a big challenge: to build up the self-payer area and establish it as just that, and to distinguish it from the practice clearly.”
“There is just a lack of understanding sometimes that you cannot bill everything on the prescription.”
“The spatial separation now also makes the separation of services more obvious to patients,” says Schaible. Before, she was often met with a lack of understanding from patients about what was private and what was not. In general, it is a great challenge:
To build up the self-pay area, establish it as such, and clearly distinguish it from the practice. “Sometimes, there is a lack of understanding that not everything can be billed to the prescription. However, we are also noticing a positive development towards a change in thinking.
Compared to ten years ago, there is a clear improvement in understanding the self-payer area in physiotherapy. For example, various after-work services are well received, but still, the recognition of self-pay services remains one of our challenges.”
In addition, to expand the self-pay area in terms of training therapy, she also decided to use Pixformance’s digital training concept last year. “Medicine and, of course, the demands of patients as well as the demands on therapists have evolved, so of course you keep at it, evolve and see what is new, what is different.”
That is why in a third location, not far from Schaible’s practice and the Wirkraum, it was time to set up a second self-pay area: The “Movement Room.” Four Pixformance training stations were set up there in an 80-square-foot room.
“First of all, we often hear from our patients that they do not feel so comfortable in a gym. Thus, I think this is a great way to help people stay moving.”
“Medicine as well as, of course, the demands of patients and therapists have evolved. That is why, of course, you keep at it, evolve and see what is new, what is different.”
She was already familiar with Pixformance through her membership in the women’s fitness chain Mrs.Sporty, co-founded by Pixformance owner Valerie Bures-Bönström. With over 200,000 exercisers per year, the Pixformance concept has been used in several European countries since 2013.
“I was training with Pixformance, and I just enjoyed it so much, functional training made sense to me right away. Then I thought that this could be a super addition to therapy for our customers. Above all, we often hear from our patients that they do not feel comfortable in a gym. So I think it is a great way to help people keep moving. Many of our patients have easy access to an exercise program like this, so that also increases understanding again in terms of self-pay.”
“I want to use Pixformance to build a second self-pay area, primarily to accommodate my staff and give them an easier and more varied job.”
For Heike Schaible, the thought of virtually supervised training and the associated relief and support for her employees was another reason for the purchase decision. “Especially when I think about the shortage of skilled workers: so many colleagues are completely burned out.” This was also the main reason for setting up the second self-pay area and expanding the range of services to include the exercise room.
“Above all, I want to accommodate my employees and offer them easier and more varied work. Thanks to the digital concept, my employees are significantly relieved in caring for patients at the Pixformance wards.” The training instructions provided by the virtual personal trainer and the corrections in real-time also make it possible to care for several patients at the same time — and without any significant supervision effort. “The second self-pay area, the exercise room, is thus another step toward better compensation and a more pleasant daily work routine.”
Due to the pandemic, however, the use of the Pixformance equipment in their case is currently limited. “Since we do not offer Pixformance training on prescription in the physio practice and have outsourced it, it cannot run as medical training therapy in our practice. However, my physical therapy colleagues occasionally go into the space with patients. Most of them are immediately enthusiastic about it and think it is great. However, we are not yet able to use the facilities so consistently. Of course, we hope that this will change as soon as possible, that the situation will improve, and that we will be able to leave the lockdown behind us,” says Schaible.
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