Coupon offers have been highly effective in the consumer market and have been adopted by the majority of consumers. According to the magazine Advertising Age, 87% of all shoppers use coupons. Tough economic times have made discount coupons an even more valuable tool in attracting patients who would otherwise skip costly medical treatments. Their effectiveness is even higher in professions that do not take health insurance.

During a recession, patients at all income levels look for discounts or at least look for ways to make them feel like they are getting a good deal. The rise in unemployment has lead to an increased loss of healthcare coverage. This in turn leaves patients with having to pay for medical services out of their own pocket. Those circumstances create a strong incentive for patients to search for the best doctor within a limited budget. It is exactly in this type of environment that coupons can be a major factor in the decision of selecting a physician. Discounting medical services also makes economic sense due to the fact that a practice’s overhead costs are fixed in nature. Rather than being a concern discounted prices help towards partially or fully covering preset costs even if its per-unit reimbursement rate is below the average. Another far more important consideration is the so-called “lifetime value” of a patient. Depending on the medical profession, The lifetime value of a patient can be worth thousands to hundreds of thousands in revenues therefore rendering coupon costs negligible when compared to future earnings potential. Savvy medical practitioners know that coupons dramatically impact their bottom line. Just to name a few benefits:

• Effective coupons attract new patients to your door. This has been verified by the fact that people will drive miles out of their way just to save 5 cents on a gallon of gas.
• Coupons entice patients from other practices to try your services. It is a proven fact that consumers will break their routines in order to take advantage of a good offer.
• Coupons can re-engage old patients by enticing them with special offers.
• They also present a great opportunity to introduce new services to existing and new patients.
• Marketing through coupons is measurable. You can easily measure, control and adjust the offers to drive the right amount of patient traffic that you require on the days that need it the most.

Who uses coupons in the medical community Anyone can take advantage of coupons and dramatically affect their bottom line. Some medical professions rely heavily on coupons to drive traffic while others simply are unaware of their usefulness. Here are a few:

• Optometrists - Buy one pair of eye glasses and get the second for free, discount on designer frames, discounts on eye exams, buy 2 boxes of contact lenses and get the third one for free.
• Chiropractor - Discount for first time patients, FREE spinal exams, discount on x-rays, and free massage after 10 visits.
• Dentist - FREE first time exam, discount on regular cleaning, tooth whitening specials.
• Massage Therapists - Free gift with first time purchase of 30 minutes. Buy 4 hours of sessions and get an hour for free. Bring a friend for a 30% discount.
• Plastic Surgeons - Discount on Botox treatments such as “Botox Wednesdays” that offer patients two injections for the price of one. Referral programs that grant breast implant patients deep discounts when bringing in a friend.

What makes a good coupon offer It depends on the profession but here are a few:

• “$50.00 Off!” Discounts on goods and services. Target offers that directly affect a patients pocket.
• Combination offers provide discounts by selling multiple services as a bundle. Offer one free treatment as part of a series of treatments. 20% off if the patient brings a friend.

The idea is to increase exposure by getting your patients to bring a friend, to offer larger discounts as patients buy more services, packaged services etc. This is a crucial step in the process of creating the right coupon offer and here also lies the importance of choosing the right partner that can help you manage your offerings. The best way to maximize exposure through coupons is with MDcircle.com. MDcircle provides medical practitioners the tools required to market their services.

• Why pay to have a coupon published in the newspaper where it gets lost when what you really want is to put your coupon in front of patients who are actively looking for your services MDcircle provides such a medium.
• Why pay to place your coupon ad when you can reach more patients for FREE at MDcircle
• MDcircle also provides you the tools to monitor which coupons are bringing in the most new patients.

Conclusion - Coupons work and are commonly used in just about every field. In these difficult economic times, patients are faced with rising healthcare costs and loss of income and/or health care coverage. Doctors are also faced with rising fixed costs and lower insurance payouts. Coupons can help patients get the deal they are looking for and doctors get the extra foot traffic they need.

IBS is a very common disorder that affects people in their middle ages. Its symptoms are numerous and range from severe abdominal pain to constipation and frequent diarrhea. There are many medications and treatments for IBS. Theses treatments are effective in curing the symptoms and conditions caused by the symptoms of IBS.

There are three main types of medications for IMS depending upon the nature of the IBS. The first medication involves stool-softeners and laxatives, which are used in cases of IBS where constipation is the primary symptom. The second medication involves anti-diarrheals, which is used in cases of IBS where diarrhea is the primary symptom.

Apart from the two medications, there are alternative treatments which involve the use of herbal and home based medicines. Generally, alternative treatments are deployable in all cases.

Laxatives are the most common medicines prescribed for IBS. Lubistropine (which is also called Amitiza), a laxative is the main medicine used in this treatment. It is a fatty acid that causes your body to produce certain secretions. The secretion helps in softening the stool and in increasing motility.

If you suffer from IBS where diarrhea is the primary symptom, you will have to take anti-diarrheals for curing. Hyascomine is the most popular anti-diarrheal and many studies have revealed that it does not have any side-effects.

Alternative treatments can range from simple home based solutions such as ginger or dill oil to taking enema once a week. Alternative treatments are very popular in curing other disorders too (for diseases related to the stomach and ), hence they become popular now.

If you suffer from IBS, you should choose the treatment that best suits your condition.

Dr. Steve Nissen, president of the American College of Cardiology, along with ten other prominent physicians, offered an outstanding proposal that would immeasurably improve medical care in this country.

And what is this great idea? Take control of medicine back from Big Pharma, who have all but destroyed it, and let doctors practice medicine with excellence.

See, a most admirable idea. So excellent an idea, in fact, that it doesn’t stand a chance. Zip, zero, nada, as they say.

Let me explain, from a thyroid patient’s point of view.

Big Pharma endows medical schools. In deference to that huge rush of money, med schools teach what Big Pharma wants taught.

As a result, most of the 40% of people in this country who have thyroid problems will never feel well again. Med schools teach their students that thyroid problems are easy to diagnose and easy treat, neither of which is true.

And they teach that the only medicine doctors should ever prescribe for hypothyroid people is the synthetic <a href=”http://www.onlinepharmacylist.net/101/1/Levothroid/”>Synthroid-or its generic lookalike, levothyroxine. Neither version works worth spit, which concerns them not a whit.

What works are natural thyroid replacement medications, such as Armour. Med schools malign and dismiss Armour. Eager med students buy into the lie they’re taught, believing it to be truth.

Based on this most unscientific training, they prescribe only <a href=”http://www.onlinepharmacylist.net/101/1/Levothroid/”>Synthroid or levothyroxine to hypothyroid patients. Patients faithfully take the medicine, expecting to feel better. But no. And when they complain about not feeling better, doctors wave blood test results at them, saying the tests prove the patient feels just fine, haggard appearance and pleas for help notwithstanding.

Doctors don’t know, having never been taught and apparently not caring enough to learn, that thyroid tests also aren’t worth spit. <a href=”http://www.onlinepharmacylist.net/101/1/Levothroid/”>Synthroid and levothyroxine make the blood test normal, but not the patient. Patients continue to gain weight, lose hair, wonder why their brains don’t work, and on, and on-dragging through life not knowing where to turn for help.

Meanwhile, an army of reps, usually young and female, frequent doctors’ offices to reinforce the message begun in med school. They bring goodies intended to keep their company’s name front and center in doctors’ minds.

Big Pharma also offers complimentary continuing education courses at fine resorts-the better to pound the message home again. Between rounds of free golf.

And Big Pharma funds “studies” that get into major medical journals. The “studies” uniformly prove, by hook or by crook, the point they were set up to prove, and gullible people line up to buy the latest prescription poison with enthusiasm. And too often live to regret it. If they live.

Big Pharma controls some state medical boards, too. In those states, doctors risk losing their license-and the wherewithal to pay off a mountain of student loans-if they recommend vitamins and other nutritional supplements to patients. Perhaps you wondered why your doctor reacted to your vitamin questions so harshly?

And there’s the media. You should also know when a magazine carries ads for pharmaceuticals, nothing in the magazine will ever, ever disagree with Big Pharma’s advertising claims. Which raises the question: If magazines are that willing to sell out, why should we believe anything they say?

And so it goes. We’re talking very deep pockets and a willingness to pass around as much as it takes. In response to Dr. Nissen and his cohorts, Big Pharma will simply funnel ever more money to media, politicians, the FDA, medical schools, medical associations, doctors and anybody else who looks like an easy mark, to beat back the proposal.

So I salute Dr. Nissen. He must care about patients and about good medicine. I wonder if he realizes how unusual that makes him.