Direct mail marketing ideas directed to hospital CEO, CFO

Greetings,

We are a small healthcare consulting company that helps hospitals
recover dollars on their patient's insurance claims where the hospital
either hasn't been paid or has been underpaid. We identify the
accounts that have opportunity and go through the entire rebilling
process for the hospital. Our fee is based on a percentage of what we
recover.

We want to send out a direct mail marketing package to perhaps 100
target hospitals. We are looking for ideas to help increase the
likelihood that our letter will be read by the CEO or CFO.

Several years ago we sent out a mailing that consisted of an Olive
Garden gift certificate sent via FedEx Pak to hospital business office
directors. When they opened up the then bi-fold menu they were
greeted by our letter glued onto the right half of the menu with that
post-it note type of glue so that it could be easily peeled off from
the menu. On the left hand side we glued 3 $10 gift certificates in
the same post-it note glue type manner. Our business card was glued
right under the gift certificates. In our letter we gave our spiel
with a commitment to contact the individual within two weeks. The
vast majority of these mailings were well received. Some people used
the gift certificates themselves. Others gave them to staff members
to use. Only a couple people sent them back saying that their
hospital's policy would not permit them to accept gifts in any kind
and for any reason.

Because of changes in the healthcare industry we feel that the gift
certificate idea will not be met as favorably now as it was in the
past. These days I think too many people would think that it was too
much like cash and to much a conflict of interest to accept them.

Of course, the whole idea was to get people to open and read our
letter. In many cases it served its intended purpose nicely. When we
followed up with a phone call, everyone knew who we were and what we
had sent. It made it much more likely that we could get past the
secretary. I am looking for any other ideas that anyone has for a
direct mailing that might achieve the same effect. We would be
willing to spend about $20 or so per mailing plus postage. We thought
about something like a small box of Godiva chocolate as an example.
Of course that wouldn't work since the heat during shipment would melt
it. We want to err on the side of being classy rather than being
cheap.

Thanks in advance for any ideas that you are willing to share to
increase the odds of being noticed and read. Hospital executives get
so much mail that goes right into the trash that we want to make sure
that we stand out in the crowd.

David Jensen