There’s a widespread belief that zero-interest payment plans are too expensive to the practice.  But the reality is interest-free payment plans cost the practice almost exactly what a cash discount costs. 

Marie Olesen, CEO, and Janelle Robinson, COO, of La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre return to Practiceland to share their journey from treating payment plans as a last-resort conversation to leading with them.

To implement the shift, they started small and tested by leading with payment plans for a full quarter, then six months, and watched applications climb from 20 percent of consults to 50 to 60 percent. That shift resulted in the biggest year in the practice's 36-year history.  

Questions answered by this episode

1. What is a payment plan for plastic surgery?
2. How do interest-free payment plans work for cosmetic surgery?
3. Is it worth offering payment plans instead of discounts?
4. Should a plastic surgery practice charge for consultations?
5. What is a soft credit check for medical financing?
6. How many hours a week does a plastic surgeon actually operate?
7. How do you ask a patient how they plan to pay without sounding rude?
8. Can payment plans increase the average size of a surgery case?
9. What percentage of consults should include a financing application?
10. Why do some practices treat payment plans as a last resort?

Marie Olesen
CEO, La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre

Marie has spent her entire professional life helping good doctors take better care of their patients and helping patients find the good doctors. When Marie's husband, R. Merrel Olesen, MD, founded LJCSC in 1988, there was little understanding of the needs of cosmetic patients. To make sure their patients were happy, Marie began surveying LJCSC patients and has done so continuously for 31 years. A self-admitted data junkie, she loves exploring patient feedback for insights that can help LJCSC and other practices better serve their patients. She is known as an innovator in cosmetic patient care and communication. She is an author, speaks nationally and internationally, and serves on the Board of the Center for Services Leadership at Arizona State University.

Connect with Marie on LinkedIn

Learn more about La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre

Janelle Robinson
COO, La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre

As the Chief Operating Officer, Janelle keeps things running smoothly at La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre. She's in charge of the day-to-day operations, from handling patient financing to making sure everything is in place for patients to receive top-notch care.

Connect with Janelle on LinkedIn

Learn more about La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre

Eva Sheie
Founder & Podcast Producer, The Axis

Eva Sheie is a startup veteran, content strategist, podcast producer, and professional musician. She is the founder of The Axis, a podcast production agency devoted to meeting the needs of women confronting life-changing medical decisions. Previously as the Director of Practice Development at RealSelf, she built and scaled the RealSelf University customer education program, and hosted the RealSelf University Podcast. Today she is the host of Meet the Doctor, co-host of Less of You, and the executive producer of numerous titles on behalf of clients, including Practiceland.

Learn more about The Axis

More from Practiceland
Missed the episode Marie and Janelle mention on reviews?

Listen to Prevent Bad Reviews Before You Get Them.

And for more of Janelle's coordinator-level playbook on talking about money, check out The Words That Open Wallets and From Awkward to Cha-Ching: The Ultimate Guide to Talking About Money in Aesthetic Practices.

Practiceland is presented by PatientFi — the patient financing partner built for aesthetic practices. PatientFi gives your patients access to flexible payment plans and gives your team the tools to offer financing confidently, without the awkward money conversation.

Learn more at patientfi.com/aesthetics

SHE DID WHAT?
Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation to share? If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise, no cheap swag here. Send us a message or voicemail at practicelandpodcast.com.

SUBSCRIBE
Are you one of us? Subscribe for new episode notifications and more at practicelandpodcast.com. New episodes drop weekly on YouTube and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Host: Eva Sheie
Producer: Eva Sheie @ The Axis
Assistant Producer: Mary Ellen Clarkson
Engineering: Chris Mann
Theme music: Full Time Job, Mindme
Cover Art: Dan Childs

Practiceland is a production of The Axis: theaxis.io

The promising lead that stopped responding, the consultation that booked and cancelled, the patient who came in once, had a great experience, and then stopped returning your calls. Those people didn't say no — they just haven't had a good enough reason to say yes yet, and fewer than one in ten practices ever reach back out to them.

Andrea Watkins and co-host Allison Petriella reframe it for us: a lack of response is not a no. Your patients are juggling kids, jobs, aging parents, and their own priorities sliding down the list — and when someone finally follows up with a real reason, they're grateful, not annoyed.

Andrea and Alli have booked over $1M in procedures on reactivation alone, and here’s how they do it without sounding salesy or sassy.

Questions answered by this episode

1. How do you follow up with a lead without being pushy?
2. How do you re-engage old leads in an aesthetic practice?
3. What is the difference between cold leads and old leads?
4. How do you convert an inquiry into a booked consultation?
5. What do you say to a patient who stopped responding?
6. Does a lack of response mean the patient isn't interested?
7. How can payment plans help close aesthetic cases?
8. How do you use an end-of-year price increase to book surgery?
9. What's the best lead reactivation script for a patient care coordinator?
10. How can a CRM help you convert more plastic surgery leads?

Allison Petriella
Patient Care Coordinator, Steven Camp, MD Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics

Alli Petriella is a patient care coordinator at Steven Camp, MD Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics, with more than a decade of experience helping aesthetic and healthcare practices grow through smarter process and technology. She recently moved back inside the practice to guide patients through their surgical journey and rebuild the intake process from the front line. On the phones and in team huddles, she's the coordinator who treats a soft schedule as a problem to solve, not a season to survive.

Connect with Alli on LinkedIn

Learn more about Steven Camp, MD Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics

Practiceland is presented by PatientFi — the patient financing partner built for aesthetic practices. PatientFi gives your patients access to flexible payment plans and gives your team the tools to offer financing confidently, without the awkward money conversation.

Learn more at patientfi.com/aesthetics

SHE DID WHAT?
Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation to share? If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise, no cheap swag here. Send us a message or voicemail at practicelandpodcast.com.

SUBSCRIBE
Are you one of us? Subscribe for new episode notifications and more at practicelandpodcast.com. New episodes drop weekly on YouTube and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

HOST
Andrea Watkins, VP of Practice Growth at Studio III Marketing
Andrea Watkins, Vice President of Practice Growth at Studio 3, coaches plastic surgery and aesthetics teams on patient acquisition, lead management, and practice efficiency to drive measurable growth. Formerly COO of a multi-million-dollar practice that nearly tripled revenue under her leadership, she now partners with over 100 practices nationwide—helping them capture and analyze data, streamline consultations and booking, and align staff training with business goals. With a directive yet approachable, non-salesy style, Andrea turns data into action, empowering practices to boost conversions, maximize marketing, and elevate the patient experience in a competitive market.

Learn more about Studio III Marketing and LeadLoop CRM for plastic surgery practices and medical spas.

Host: Andrea Watkins
Producer: Eva Sheie @ The Axis
Assistant Producer: Mary Ellen Clarkson
Engineering: Chris Mann
Theme music: Full Time Job, Mindme
Cover Art: Dan Childs

Practiceland is a production of The Axis: theaxis.io

Most practices chase stars on Google and stop there. But proactively seeking feedback from patients before requesting a review is the earliest warning that a process or a person is quietly letting people down. Practices that survey their patients catch those problems in private, long before they turn into a public shaming or a legal battle.

In 1988, after realizing patients choose their surgeon by listening to other patients, Marie Olesen at La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre began surveying every patient without exception.

Hear why cherry-picking happy patients instead of including everyone drops your one-star rate roughly seven times below what shows up on Google, and learn how anonymous surveys give the whole team permission to help a frustrated patient before that patient ever feels the need to go public.

Questions answered by this episode

1. How do you get more patient reviews for a medical practice?
2. How do you respond to a negative patient review?
3. Should you ask every patient for a review?
4. How do patient surveys prevent bad reviews?
5. What is Real Patient Ratings?
6. Why are online reviews important for cosmetic surgery practices?
7. How do you use patient feedback to improve your practice?
8. What is the difference between Google reviews and patient survey reviews?
9. How do you benchmark providers using patient satisfaction scores?
10. How do you build a practice culture around patient feedback?

Guests

Marie Olesen
CEO, La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre & Founder, Real Patient Ratings

Marie Olesen is the CEO of La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre in San Diego, the practice her late husband, Dr. Merrel Olesen, founded in 1988. Frustrated by unverified online reviews, she built Real Patient Ratings and its parent company, Vizium360, and holds a US patent for a survey system that turns anonymous, verified patient feedback into ratings a practice can act on. She co-authored Cosmetic Surgery for Dummies and has spent nearly four decades studying what aesthetic patients actually want, collecting patient feedback at La Jolla Cosmetic every year since 1988. Her core belief runs through the whole episode: what management sends down the pipeline is what the patient ultimately receives.

Connect with Marie on LinkedIn

Learn more about La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre

Explore Real Patient Ratings

Janelle Robinson
COO, La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre

Janelle Robinson is the COO of La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre, where she has spent more than two decades — starting straight out of college as a marketing assistant and rising to run the Centre's day-to-day operations. She leads the teams that talk to patients all day, turning survey feedback into concrete process changes and personally stepping in when a patient needs someone in their corner. She holds a marketing degree from California State University San Marcos.

Connect with Janelle on LinkedIn

Learn more about La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre

Guest host: Eva Sheie
Founder, The Axis

Eva Sheie steps in for Andrea Watkins to host this episode. As the founder of The Axis, Eva has spent years serving aesthetic practices — including La Jolla Cosmetic — on the content, reviews, and patient-experience data that shape how patients choose a surgeon.

Practiceland is presented by PatientFi — the patient financing partner built for aesthetic practices. PatientFi gives your patients access to flexible payment plans and gives your team the tools to offer financing confidently, without the awkward money conversation.

Learn more at patientfi.com/aesthetics

SHE DID WHAT?
Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation to share? If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise, no cheap swag here. Send us a message or voicemail at practicelandpodcast.com.

SUBSCRIBE
Are you one of us? Subscribe for new episode notifications and more at practicelandpodcast.com. 

Host: Andrea Watkins
Producer: Eva Sheie @ The Axis
Assistant Producer: Mary Ellen Clarkson
Engineering: Chris Mann
Theme music: Full Time Job, Mindme
Cover Art: Dan Childs

Practiceland is a production of The Axis

Every year the schedule goes soft, everyone panics, and then it fills back up — like summer is some kind of surprise.

Andrea Watkins and patient care coordinator Alli Petriella break down how to see the slow stretches coming: pulling several years of historical data, tracking surgery-hour utilization and revenue, and reading the lifestyle and regional patterns that decide when your patients actually book.
Here’s how to talk about a soft month with your team without spreading panic, how to use your CRM to re-engage the leads you already have, and why giving patients three good reasons to book in any month keeps the calendar full year-round.

Questions answered by this episode

1. Why do aesthetic practices slow down in the summer?
2. How do you fill open surgery slots during a slow season?
3. What is surgery hour utilization and how do you track it?
4. How do you use historical data to predict slow months in a practice?
5. How should a patient care coordinator handle a slow schedule?
6. What is the best time of year to have plastic surgery?
7. How do you re-engage patients who didn't book because of price?
8. How can a CRM help fill a plastic surgery schedule?
9. How do you talk to your team about a slow month without causing panic?
10. Do patient payment plans help convert leads lost to price?

Alli Petriella
Patient Care Coordinator, Steven Camp, MD Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics

Alli Petriella is a patient care coordinator at Steven Camp, MD Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics, with more than a decade of experience helping aesthetic and healthcare practices grow through smarter process and technology. She recently moved back inside the practice to guide patients through their surgical journey and rebuild the intake process from the front line. On the phones and in team huddles, she's the coordinator who treats a soft schedule as a problem to solve, not a season to survive.

Connect with Alli on LinkedIn
Learn more about Steven Camp, MD Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics

Practiceland is presented by PatientFi — the patient financing partner built for aesthetic practices. PatientFi gives your patients access to flexible payment plans and gives your team the tools to offer financing confidently, without the awkward money conversation.

Learn more at patientfi.com/aesthetics

SHE DID WHAT?
Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation to share? If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise, no cheap swag here. Send us a message or voicemail at practicelandpodcast.com.

SUBSCRIBE
Are you one of us? Subscribe for new episode notifications and more at practicelandpodcast.com.

HOST
Andrea Watkins, VP of Practice Growth at Studio III Marketing

Andrea Watkins, Vice President of Practice Growth at Studio 3, coaches plastic surgery and aesthetics teams on patient acquisition, lead management, and practice efficiency to drive measurable growth. Formerly COO of a multi-million-dollar practice that nearly tripled revenue under her leadership, she now partners with over 100 practices nationwide—helping them capture and analyze data, streamline consultations and booking, and align staff training with business goals. With a directive yet approachable, non-salesy style, Andrea turns data into action, empowering practices to boost conversions, maximize marketing, and elevate the patient experience in a competitive market.

Learn more about Studio III Marketing and LeadLoop CRM for plastic surgery practices and medical spas.

Host: Andrea Watkins
Producer: Eva Sheie @ The Axis
Assistant Producer: Mary Ellen Clarkson
Engineering: Chris Mann
Theme music: Full Time Job, Mindme
Cover Art: Dan Childs

Practiceland is a production of The Axis: theaxis.io

Some people walk in ready to sign before you open your mouth. Others need three weeks, a printout, and a notebook full of questions. Same practice, same price, same words out of you — completely different result.

Troy Cole runs LogiCole Consulting and has spent about 20 years coaching refractive and cataract surgery teams to convert more patients and command premium prices. He teaches Andrea DISC, a four-quadrant personality framework simple enough to use live on a phone call, then reads Andrea's own DISC profile in under three minutes to prove it works. Two lines (a motor and a compass) are all it takes to place someone.

The part that catches teams off guard: S types are about 35% of the population, and they are exactly the people a same-day-close push drives away. Troy explains why the highest-converting coordinators are often the S types already on staff, how to spot a D, I, S, or C in a text message, and what changed for one “high-D” surgeon when she quit walking into her administrator's office like a tornado.

Questions answered by this episode

1. What is DISC personality profiling?
2. What do the letters in DISC stand for?
3. What are the four DISC personality types?
4. How do you identify someone's DISC personality type?
5. How do you handle a price objection in a plastic surgery consultation?
6. What percentage of the population is each DISC personality type?
7. What is the difference between DISC and Myers-Briggs?
8. How do you use DISC in sales conversations?
9. Can you identify a personality type from a text message or email?
10. Why do patients say they need to think about it?

Troy ColeFounder, LogiCole Consulting

Troy Cole runs LogiCole Consulting, where he coaches refractive and cataract surgery teams to sell without sounding salesy. He has spent about 20 years in the ophthalmology space, and his firm has worked with hundreds of elective surgery practices across North America, helping phone teams and patient counselors turn more leads into consults and more consults into procedures. His DISC for Doctors & Teams program trains staff to read communication styles in real time and adapt mid-conversation; his E3 Bootcamp is a 12-week intensive built for phone teams and patient counselors. He is based outside Fort Worth, Texas, and coaches youth baseball, where he says DISC works just as well as it does in a consult room.

Connect with Troy on LinkedInLearn more about LogiCole Consulting

Practiceland is presented by PatientFi — the patient financing partner built for aesthetic practices. PatientFi gives your patients access to flexible payment plans and gives your team the tools to offer financing confidently, without the awkward money conversation.Learn more at patientfi.com/aesthetics

SHE DID WHAT?
Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation to share? If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise, no cheap swag here. Send us a message or voicemail at practicelandpodcast.com.

SUBSCRIBE
Are you one of us? Subscribe for new episode notifications and more at practicelandpodcast.com. 

HOST

Andrea Watkins, VP of Practice Growth at Studio III Marketing

Andrea Watkins, Vice President of Practice Growth at Studio 3, coaches plastic surgery and aesthetics teams on patient acquisition, lead management, and practice efficiency to drive measurable growth. Formerly COO of a multi-million-dollar practice that nearly tripled revenue under her leadership, she now partners with over 100 practices nationwide—helping them capture and analyze data, streamline consultations and booking, and align staff training with business goals. With a directive yet approachable, non-salesy style, Andrea turns data into action, empowering practices to boost conversions, maximize marketing, and elevate the patient experience in a competitive market.

Learn more about Studio III Marketing and LeadLoop CRM for plastic surgery practices and medical spas. 

Host: Andrea Watkins
Producer: Eva Sheie @ The Axis
Assistant Producer: Mary Ellen Clarkson
Engineering: Chris Mann
Theme music: Full Time Job, Mindme
Cover Art: Dan Childs

Practiceland is a production of The Axis: theaxis.io

A hole opens up on the surgery schedule with zero warning, and it never fails to trigger the same stomach-drop reaction from whoever picks up the phone.

Andrea Watkins and Alli Petriella walk through exactly what to do next — the policies you need in place before it happens, and the moves that fill the spot fast without looking desperate.

Alli, a Patient Care Coordinator with more than a decade in aesthetic practice sales, joins Andrea live from the office to break down a full system: how to build and organize a working list of patients ready to move up, exactly how tight the phone script and timeline need to be, and why the first call should never include a discount.

They also cover the one narrow situation where a small fee reduction actually makes sense, plus why posting last-minute surgery openings on social media can backfire — both for the practice's reputation and for patients who already paid full price.

Questions answered by this episode:

• What is a good cancellation policy for plastic surgery?
• How much notice do you need to cancel a surgery?
• What happens if you cancel a plastic surgery appointment?
• Are plastic surgery deposits refundable if you cancel?
• How do you fill a last-minute surgery cancellation?
• What is a fair rescheduling fee for elective surgery?
• Should you offer a discount to fill a canceled surgery slot?
• How do you organize a patient cancellation waitlist?
• Is it okay to advertise last-minute openings on social media?
• How long do patients get to accept a moved-up surgery date?

Alli Petriella

Patient Care Coordinator, Steven Camp, MD Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics

Alli is a results-driven sales professional and consultant with 12+ years of experience helping healthcare and aesthetics practices grow through technology, strategy, and process optimization. She specializes in guiding practices to overcome operational challenges and maximize growth by leveraging cutting-edge software solutions and streamlining patient care. Alli recently returned to the practice as a Patient Care Coordinator to partner with patients on their surgical journey and restructure the patient intake process.

Connect with Alli on LinkedIn

Practiceland is presented by PatientFi — the patient financing partner built for aesthetic practices. PatientFi gives your patients access to flexible payment plans and gives your team the tools to offer financing confidently, without the awkward money conversation.

Learn more at patientfi.com/aesthetics

SHE DID WHAT?
Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation to share? If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise, no cheap swag here. Send us a message or voicemail at practicelandpodcast.com.

SUBSCRIBE
Are you one of us? Subscribe for new episode notifications and more at practicelandpodcast.com. 

HOST

Andrea Watkins, VP of Practice Growth at Studio III Marketing

Andrea Watkins, Vice President of Practice Growth at Studio 3, coaches plastic surgery and aesthetics teams on patient acquisition, lead management, and practice efficiency to drive measurable growth. Formerly COO of a multi-million-dollar practice that nearly tripled revenue under her leadership, she now partners with over 100 practices nationwide—helping them capture and analyze data, streamline consultations and booking, and align staff training with business goals. With a directive yet approachable, non-salesy style, Andrea turns data into action, empowering practices to boost conversions, maximize marketing, and elevate the patient experience in a competitive market.

Learn more about Studio III Marketing and LeadLoop CRM for plastic surgery practices and medical spas. 

Host: Andrea Watkins
Producer: Eva Sheie @ The Axis
Assistant Producer: Mary Ellen Clarkson
Engineering: Chris Mann
Theme music: Full Time Job, Mindme
Cover Art: Dan Childs

Practiceland is a production of The Axis: theaxis.io

Every consult eventually hits the moment a patient goes quiet — “let me think about it,” or the call that opens with “just tell me what a tummy tuck costs.” How you handle that pause decides whether the patient moves forward or walks out the door.

Pulled from the Practiceland vault, we’re bringing you the sharpest objection-handling moments our guests have ever given us, stitched into a single masterclass.

Jenna Hennig, Alli Petriella, and Janelle Robinson break down why hesitation is almost always fear, trust, timing, or a missing “yes” from someone at home — and why the price is rarely the real reason a patient stalls.

Get the exact language that works: how to ask the right questions before you ever quote a number, how to anchor a price so it lands as a monthly payment instead of a sticker shock, the one gentle sentence that opens the payment-plan conversation without putting a patient’s guard up, what to do when an application comes back denied, and how the words your team uses every day quietly shape the culture of the practice you work in.

Questions answered by this episode:

1. What do you say when a patient asks how much a procedure costs?
2. How do you handle price objections in a consultation?
3. How do you talk to patients about payment plans?
4. Why do patients say they need to think about it?
5. How do you present pricing without scaring a patient off?
6. What should the front desk say when someone asks for a price?
7. What do you do when a patient can’t get approved for payment plans?
8. How do you ease a patient’s fear of anesthesia?
9. Should aesthetic practices offer discounts to book patients?
10. What is price anchoring and how does it work?

Jenna Hennig, RN
Aesthetic Injector, Austin Plastic Surgeon

Now a seasoned aesthetic injector, Jenna’s career started in women’s health as an L&D nurse. Her specialties include facial balancing, tackling cellulite, combining different treatments for high-impact results, reducing sweat, melting away fat, and using biostimulators to fight aging and tighten skin.

Connect with Jenna on LinkedIn

Follow Jenna on Instagram @austinbeautyboss


Alli Petriella
Patient Care Coordinator, Steven Camp, MD Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics

Alli is a results-driven sales professional and consultant with 12+ years of experience helping healthcare and aesthetics practices grow through technology, strategy, and process optimization. She specializes in guiding practices to overcome operational challenges and maximize growth by leveraging cutting-edge software solutions and streamlining patient care. Alli recently moved back inside the practice as a Patient Care Coordinator to partner with patients on their surgical journey and restructure the patient intake process.

Connect with Alli on LinkedIn


Janelle Robinson
Chief Operating Officer, La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre

Janelle Robinson keeps things running smoothly as the COO of La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre, where she also leads the patient coordinator team. She started as a marketing coordinator and worked her way into patient coordination before stepping into operations — so she understands every part of the patient journey, from the first ringing phone to the final yes.

Learn more about La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre

Practiceland is presented by PatientFi — the patient financing partner built for aesthetic practices. PatientFi gives your patients access to flexible payment plans and gives your team the tools to offer financing confidently, without the awkward money conversation.

Learn more at patientfi.com/aesthetics

The hardest part of learning the patient coordinator role in an aesthetic practice isn't memorizing procedures or learning the EMR — it's the first time a patient asks what something costs and you have to answer without flinching. 

The instinct most of us have on day one is to whisper the number, hide behind the brochure, or drop the price and let silence do the rest. But not being confident in these conversations costs the practice consults, bookings, and doesn’t help the patients who genuinely want to move forward.

From the first year of Practiceland, we curated the essentials of “money talks” into one straight-through episode you can hand a brand-new hireSometimes words are the only thing separating a top 5% coordinator from a new one — and this episode is the fastest way to win.

Questions answered by this episode

1. How does compound interest work?
2. What's the difference between APR and interest rate?
3. Are 0% medical credit cards actually 0%?
4. How do you train a new patient care coordinator?
5. How do you talk to patients about money in an aesthetic practice?
6. What is anchoring in a sales conversation?
7. How do you ask a patient about their monthly budget?
8. How do you bring up payment plans without sounding pushy?
9. What do you do when a patient hesitates to schedule their procedure?
10. What's the best way to talk to patients about patient financing?

Practiceland is presented by PatientFi — the patient financing partner built for aesthetic practices. PatientFi gives your patients access to flexible payment plans and gives your team the tools to offer financing confidently, without the awkward money conversation.

Learn more at patientfi.com/aesthetics

SHE DID WHAT?

Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation to share? If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise, no cheap swag here. Send us a message or voicemail at practicelandpodcast.com.

SUBSCRIBE

Are you one of us? Subscribe for new episode notifications and more at practicelandpodcast.com. 

Producer: Eva Sheie @ The Axis
Assistant Producer: Mary Ellen Clarkson
Engineering: Cameron Laird
Theme music: Full Time Job, Mindme
Cover Art: Dan Childs

Practiceland is a production of The Axis: theaxis.io

Every reminder, confirmation, and follow-up your front desk sends is a chance to build trust — or get unsubscribed. Most teams run the generic, canned versions baked into their EMR, the ones patients tune out. This is about the difference between automation that sounds like a robot and automation that sounds like you.

Andrea talks with Becky Godsey, Chief Operating Officer at Denver Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics, who slowly rebuilt her practice’s automated messaging to feel personal, protect the schedule, and take busywork off the front desk. She breaks down her exact cadence — a message at booking, a three-days-out reminder paired with pre and post-treatment instructions, a post-checkout care link, and the one timing trick that gets far more patients to leave a review.

They also get into where automation should stop and a human has to pick up the phone — anxious patients, complications, payment-plan questions — plus how a front-desk QR code and a linked instructions page stop wasted appointments before they happen, and why the surgeon, not a text, should be the one asking surgical patients for a review.

Questions answered by this episode:

1. How do you get patients to leave reviews?
2. What is the best time to ask a patient for a review?
3. How do you reduce appointment no-shows and cancellations?
4. How do automated appointment reminders work?
5. Should you call or text patients to confirm appointments?
6. How can AI help write patient text messages and emails?
7. What should pre and post-treatment instructions include?
8. How do you ask surgery patients for a review?
9. How often should you text patients before they unsubscribe?
10. How do you set up an EMR for patient communication?

Becky Godsey
Chief Operating Officer, Denver Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics

Becky Godsey is the Chief Operating Officer of Denver Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics, the Denver practice founded by Dr. Christine Rodgers. Since joining the team in 2016, she has run operations across every department — staffing, processes, and the patient experience from the first phone call to post-op follow-up. Before plastics, she built her career in advertising and sales and managed a healthcare nonprofit, and that mix shows up in how she thinks about patient communication: efficient, but never robotic. She is the person quietly rebuilding the systems most practices just complain about.

Learn more about Denver Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics

Follow the practice on Instagram @drchristinerodgers

Practiceland is presented by PatientFi — the patient financing partner built for aesthetic practices. PatientFi gives your patients access to flexible payment plans and gives your team the tools to offer financing confidently, without the awkward money conversation.

Learn more at patientfi.com/aesthetics

Host: Andrea Watkins
Producer: Eva Sheie @ The Axis
Assistant Producer: Mary Ellen Clarkson
Engineering: Cameron Laird
Theme music: Full Time Job, Mindme
Cover Art: Dan Childs

Practiceland is a production of The Axis: theaxis.io

There’s a good chance no one has ever told what the corporate practice of medicine doctrine exists, and that’s exactly the problem. It affects everyone in the practice too — not just the person who owns the business.

Regulators are actively looking. Boards of medicine, nursing, and pharmacy are running audits across the country, and a spa that quietly started offering Botox or body contouring is exactly who they’re looking for. One Oregon plastic surgeon was out of compliance for years after a law quietly changed — and didn’t know until they got caught.

This legal framework governs how medical practices can be structured and owned, and when it’s violated, the consequences fall on everyone in the building, including the staff. 

Attorney Evan Sampson breaks it down in plain language: what the law actually says, how dramatically it varies by state (New York is the strictest in the country; others barely enforce it), and what Management Support Organizations are — the legal structure that allows non-physicians to own parts of a practice without running afoul of the rules.

Questions answered by this episode:

• Can a non-physician own a medical spa?
• What is the corporate practice of medicine?
• Who regulates medical spas?
• What happens if a med spa violates ownership laws?
• What is a Management Support Organization (MSO)?
• Can a spa owner add Botox or medical services?
• Who polices med spa compliance?
• What’s the difference between medical supervision and medical direction?
• Which states have the strictest corporate practice of medicine laws?
• What do you do if healthcare laws change and you didn’t know?

Evan Sampson

Counsel, Healthcare at Post & Schell Attorneys At Law

Evan Sampson is Counsel in Post & Schell’s Health Care Practice Group, where he advises health care providers and organizations on a broad range of regulatory, transactional, and litigation matters.

Connect with Evan on LinkedIn — linkedin.com/in/evan-sampson-5351a953

Learn more about Post & Schell — postschell.com

Eva Sheie

Founder & Podcast Producer at The Axis

Eva Sheie is a startup veteran, content strategist, podcast producer, and professional musician. She is the founder of The Axis, a podcast production agency devoted to meeting the needs of women confronting life-changing medical decisions. Today she is the host of Meet the Doctor, co-host of Less of You, and the executive producer of numerous titles on behalf of clients, including Practiceland.

Learn more about The Axis — theaxispodcasts.com

Practiceland is presented by PatientFi — the patient financing partner built for aesthetic practices. PatientFi gives your patients access to flexible payment plans and gives your team the tools to offer financing confidently, without the awkward money conversation.

Learn more at patientfi.com/aesthetics