Online Options to Retain Clients and Increase Revenues
Recently, the virtual world has overlapped with the substance abuse treatment world. It’s no secret that since COVID-19, “remote everything” has been the trend in nearly every industry – especially the medical sector. You may already have heard about virtual IOP and PHP programs, or even been pitched ways to adopt them at your addiction treatment facility.
But what makes an effective virtual IOP program, and can your treatment center benefit from adopting such a model?
In case after case, addiction treatment stands to gain some of the most significant benefits through virtual programs of all healthcare practices. It just takes the right support and some ingenuity – and Ads Up Marketing can help.
Keep reading and we will look into the specifics of IOP programs online that deliver benefits for recovery and mental health challenges, and how to make them work for your facilities today!
What Is an IOP Program?
So what is a virtual IOP? In this section, we’ll explain the specifics of a virtual intensive outpatient program, as well as touch on the similar offerings of an online partial hospitalization program (PHP).
Definition and Purpose of an IOP or Intensive Outpatient Program
You’re certainly aware of what an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) consists of. If for some reason you’re not, an IOP is a more intensive approach to outpatient mental health and/or substance abuse treatment and opens up a whole array of options for your addiction treatment marketing in terms of offerings and reaching new clients and increased revenues.
In the case of standard outpatient care, a client receives substance abuse and mental health services for anywhere from 4 to 6 hours per week.
In the event of an upgrade to an IOP, this time obligation is bumped to between 6 and 10 hours, with PHP typically occupying from 20 to 30 hours or more. In most cases, the IOP is reserved as a bridge between upper and lower care levels, or as a reinforcement for those who may have completed outpatient but relapsed.
Key Components to IOPs and Overlap into Virtual Programs
At this point, you might be asking yourself how you can incorporate your existing outpatient program into a virtual version. Well, first, you must take a look at what makes or breaks a traditional IOP. What are the most powerful elements? How do they truly help each client?
Things like group therapy, one-on-one counseling, and crafting aftercare plans are some of the most vital elements of your traditional outpatient treatment. So, we take a look at this and ask ourselves how we can take this framework and move it into a digital or remote setting.
Simply offering such a program can widen your rehab marketing funnel considerably, with increased access for alumni in aftercare, as well as for clients attracted to your brand but unable to physically attend a program.
After examining the foundation of your traditional IOP, figuring out how to manifest the many benefits of a virtual or digital version doesn’t seem as difficult. Now, let’s examine some of the most important benefits of adopting a virtual IOP.
What are the Benefits of Virtual IOP Programs?
So what does the adoption of a remote IOP offering do for you? What does it do for your clients? These are some of the most impactful of the numerous benefits.
Accessibility and Convenience for Clients
Virtual Intensive Outpatient Programs eliminate a lot of the distance challenges clients face with regard to addiction treatment services. In certain cases – especially for clients who live in extremely rural or remote areas – the commute can be overwhelming.
In terms of those with co-occurring disorders, this can be particularly burdensome. Unlike MAT medications attending therapy sessions and even AA meetings, licensed therapists who can offer mental health treatment are even more lacking in many remote regions of our country.
In the most extreme cases, clients can travel as far as 120 to 180 miles until they find appropriate sources for mental health and substance abuse treatment. Leveraging these types of remote options gives clients anywhere a chance to keep the most prominent behavioral health and substance abuse facilities at the tips of their fingers.
This eliminates the chance that a client misses a chance at recovery because of mileage barriers, and virtual care options are one of the most impactful trends in addiction treatment in recent years.
Expanded Reach and Client Base
This is more of a benefit for you as a rehab owner – but it also has a positive impact on your potential client base. With an expanded reach you can now reach a much wider audience. Think about the advantages this would have on your SEO for example:
What would it look like to expand your local SEO reach, let’s say – about 150 miles? For many organizations, this can have a tremendous benefit, to say the least, in opening up their programs to admission from new potential clients.
What is the Potential Cost Impact on Clients and Treatment Centers?
How much money would you save in overhead by gaining the ability to provide treatment remotely? Your expenses in areas like maintenance, utilities, and staff-to-client ratio could be reduced substantially. These funds could be reallocated to areas where the impact would produce far more powerful results.
This also potentially alleviates stress from the client, as a lower overhead here would equate to a lower cost for treatment. Out-of-pocket expenses could fall, in addition to the cost of fuel to and from treatment centers.
Flexible Options for Attendance
At its core, the primary benefit to the client who attends a virtual IOP is the luxury of flexibility. Those suffering from drug and alcohol addiction have more power to select time slots that coincide with their daily routine. This results in fewer disruptions in their personal and professional lives – not to mention their recovery journey – and a chance to integrate their treatment into their daily routine in a normal organic way.
In some cases, a hybrid option where people attend in-person sessions alongside virtual IOP meetings is also possible for some facilities.
In either case, fully virtual or hybrid IOP offerings, the opening up of additional behavioral healthcare programs, and scheduling options are likely to net you a larger influx of customers from sheer convenience alone.
Essential Elements of a Successful Virtual IOP
You’re probably looking at all this and thinking, “Okay, it all sounds good – but how exactly do I make it happen?” It’s probably not as difficult as you think – but it doesn’t happen automatically overnight, either. Like anything, planning and precision are required to deploy these types of programs.
Choosing Your Technology and Platform
Offering a virtual IOP means either adopting virtual platforms or creating a technological infrastructure that includes an online educational platform. You want all of this to fire off without a hitch, so it’s worth investing a little more in high-quality, secure platform selection.
This will make life less stressful for you and create a more positive client experience.
Ensuring Client Privacy and Confidentiality
Protecting client privacy and confidentiality is paramount in the realm of addiction recovery and treatment. What does the privacy and security element consist of here? Well, some of the most vital elements are listed below:
- Encrypted platforms and regular content monitoring to avoid malware, phishing, and other nefarious online activity.
- A secure line of communication between clients and providers. This means 2F-A, password protected, and even higher levels of security may be required.
- Being mindful of regulatory compliance and staying on the right side of legal and ethical regulations.
After establishing the framework of your virtual IOP, you can get into the meat of the platform – your treatment modalities.
Adapting Treatment Modalities for Online Delivery
This is the action step. Finding the most productive practices and methods that lead to the highest levels of client success is mandatory. Despite the fact that they’re making a switch to a remote form of treatment, they shouldn’t have to sacrifice their access to evidence-based therapy, top-notch counseling, or the ability to attend therapy sessions and engage in group therapy sessions.
Here’s a list of the inclusions that you must have as part of your remote IOP to hold your current standards of quality:
- Group therapy chat rooms/Zoom calls
- Family therapy with providers
- Focus on mental health concerns
- Individual therapy sessions
Expanding Services and Tailoring to Diverse Client Needs
To increase revenues and even more significantly improve treatment outcomes and revenue cycle management, treatment facilities can consider expanding their service offerings and tailoring programs to meet diverse client needs. How can you not only keep your IOP offerings on par with the competition – but jump leaps and bounds ahead of them?
Consider offering specialty programs that focus on dual diagnosis, trauma-informed care, dialectical behavior therapy, eating disorders, mood disorders, coping skills, mental health disorders and even specialized options for those who speak alternative languages.
When catering to non-English speaking clients in person poses a more formidable challenge, online it becomes much easier.
Preparing for the Future of Virtual IOPs
Virtual IOPs and virtual IOP treatment services most likely aren’t going anywhere. If anything, we’ll see a higher level of adoption and more transition to virtual programs where possible.
Now is the best time to start preparing for the future of tele-treatment in terms of rehab programs for mental health conditions and the treatment of substance use disorders at your facility. If you choose not to entertain such options, rest assured, your competitors will be eager to promote their own offerings.
The Benefits of Virtual IOP: Stay On the Leading Edge of Technology
Technology advances every millisecond. When one person is discovering a new trend, the next organization is already deploying 2.0 on the other side of the world.
Staying on the leading edge of technological advances like virtual reality therapist sessions, AI-driven client treatment decisions, and the way you analyze data and KPIs will keep you on the right side of this technological wave.
Regulatory and Legal Considerations
This can’t be stated enough – the further virtual and telehealth options encroach on current models, the more we’re going to see new and revamped forms of regulatory compliance and provider regulations.
Maintaining and staying up to date with new certifications and providing compliant treatment spaces will be critical to your success.
Let Us Help Guide Your Facilities into the Future
At Ads Up Marketing, we keep our fingers on the pulse of the latest trends in technology. We can help you not only develop your virtual IOP but also help to keep it current and competitive in this quickly evolving field of treatment.
We can help ensure your virtual IOP remains compliant and obtains all the necessary certifications, help deploy additional offerings like family therapy sessions, and optimize your current individual therapy plans.
Reach Out to Ads Up and Launch Your V-IOP Today
Setting up a virtual setting for your online intensive outpatient program (IOP) doesn’t happen at the snap of a finger – but we sure can help make it a lot easier on you. There’s no reason your virtual individual therapy or mental health treatment should be just as effective as any in-person program.
Virtual treatment is knocking on the door, and Ads Up Marketing is on the front lines, helping empower treatment providers in every facet of their business.
If you’ve been thinking of adopting a virtual IOP program, or simply want to discuss your marketing strategy, contact us today, and let’s set up a meeting!