Dermatology marketing for group practices — medical and cosmetic lines

Medical fills the schedule. Cosmetic pays the multiple — and most groups market them backwards.

CC — PRESENTING COMPLAINT

Same brand, same fee schedule, a wide spread between sites

One name, one contract set, one price list — and cosmetic revenue per site that differs by a multiple across the group. That spread is the most under-read number in a dermatology group, because it is invisible in any report that pools the sites together, and pooling is what every standard report does.

The causes are rarely mysterious once the sites are read separately. One office has a provider who is comfortable presenting elective treatment and three who are not. One has an aesthetician on staff and one refers the work out. One books cosmetic consults into the same slot type as a rash and wonders why the no-show rate is worse.

None of that is a marketing finding, and all of it is found by marketing instrumentation, because the instrumentation is what makes the sites comparable in the first place. We report line-level performance per site from the beginning, and the spread between sites is usually a larger opportunity than anything available in the ad account.

SUBJECTIVE

What we hear from dermatology group owners

"Botox inquiries book with the med spa down the street." · "Our providers hate selling." · "Insurance volume is up; margin isn't."

ASSESSMENT

The cosmetic line and the medical line are two different businesses

Dermatology presents as one practice that's actually two businesses — an insurance clinic and a cash-pay retail line — run on the same site, the same intake script, and the same booking flow.

The cosmetic line runs as a side effect of the medical line. Cash-pay patients are shopping; the practice is triaging. Nobody is priced, routed, or reported like a retail business — so the med spa wins by default.

OBJECTIVE — what we find on intake

What we find on intake

Volume skewed medical while cosmetic capacity sits underused · cash-pay acquisition cost unknown and unmanaged · cosmetic consults no-show at a materially higher rate than medical visits

PLAN

What we do: line-level acquisition and consult instrumentation

Cash-pay funnel split from insurance · deposit-backed cosmetic consult flow · provider-level demand routing · monthly readout split medical vs. cosmetic

WHAT WE MEASURE

What we measure: cosmetic revenue per site, consult-to-treatment, cost per encounter

Cosmetic revenue per site per month, reported separately from medical
Consult-to-treatment conversion on elective work, by site and provider
Cost per new encounter, split medical and cosmetic
Cosmetic no-show and short-notice cancellation rate
Capacity used on the cosmetic line — rooms and provider hours
Months to system

The medical line is measured too, but as a capacity and payer question rather than an acquisition one. Buying demand into a schedule that is already full is not growth; it is a longer wait time reported as a win.

REFERENCE RANGES

Reference ranges for dermatology groups

REFERENCE RANGES FOR THIS SPECIALTY →

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