Orthopedic marketing for the referral and the search.

What does an orthopedic marketing agency do?

It fills the right surgeon's schedule with the right cases, from patients who were referred and patients who went looking. Here is what we run for an orthopedic group and where each piece sits:

How do joint replacement patients choose a surgeon?

Most often through another doctor. In a 2025 survey of hip and knee replacement patients at four high-volume centers, Among 808 participants, most selected their surgeon through referrals (44.9%) or word-of-mouth recommendations (18.7%); only 8.4% cited online advertisements.

A 2024 survey of 538 patients of hip and knee replacement surgeons at one academic center found the same order: The most common referral sources were physician referral (50.2%), family/friend referral (27.7%), and self-guided research (24.5%). Those patients rated board certification and in-network insurance status as the two most important factors in picking a surgeon, and television, print and online ads among the least important.

Two things follow for marketing. First, the doctors who refer are your biggest channel, and how you earn their referrals is regulated (next section). Second, the patients in the 2024 survey put board certification and in-network insurance first, so the surgeon's page, board statement, insurance list and reviews should answer those questions plainly. Ads matter most for patients with an injury or a new problem who search before anyone refers them.

How can a group market to the doctors who refer?

With information, access and follow-up. Anything of value for a referring office goes to your counsel first. The federal Anti-Kickback Statute makes it a felony for anyone who knowingly and willfully offers or pays any remuneration (including any kickback, bribe, or rebate) directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind to any person to induce such person to refer a patient for care that Medicare, Medicaid or another federal health care program may pay for, in whole or in part. The statute adds that a person need not have actual knowledge of this section or specific intent to commit a violation of this section.

The Stark law adds a second limit. If a physician has a financial relationship with an entity, the physician may not refer Medicare patients to it for designated health services unless an exception applies, and the law's list includes physical therapy, radiology including MRI, CT and ultrasound, and durable medical equipment: the same services many groups add. The law has exceptions, including one for in-office ancillary services (which by statute leaves out most durable medical equipment), and state laws can add their own limits. Your counsel decides whether an arrangement fits.

Sources: 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7b(b)(2) and (h), matched against the U.S. Code 2024 edition, and 42 U.S.C. 1395nn(a)(1) and (h)(6), both as republished by Cornell's Legal Information Institute, read October 28, 2026.

What does outpatient joint replacement change for marketing?

Where patients can have surgery, and who watches the 30 or 90 days after. For 2026, Medicare started a three-year phase-out of its inpatient-only list: In order to give beneficiaries more choices on where to obtain care with the potential for lower out-of-pocket expenses, CMS is finalizing its proposal to phase out the IPO list over a 3-year period, beginning with the removal of 285 mostly musculoskeletal procedures for CY 2026. It also widened the list it pays ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) for: CMS added 289 procedures to the ASC CPL. Additionally, CMS added 271 codes to the ASC CPL that were removed from the IPO list for CY 2026.

Both episode models are hospital models. In TEAM, selected acute care hospitals coordinate care from surgery through 30 days post-hospitalization for people with Original Medicare undergoing one of five surgical procedures, lower extremity joint replacement among them, and TEAM is a mandatory model and will run for five performance years from January 1, 2026, to December 31, 2030, in selected Core-Based Statistical Areas nationwide. CJR-X, for hip, knee and ankle replacements in hospital settings, will be mandatory nationwide beginning January 1, 2028.

One more Medicare model reaches surgeons directly. CMS's mandatory Ambulatory Specialty Model scores selected specialists on their care from January 1, 2027, and from 2029 it moves their Medicare Part B payments for professional services down or up, by as much as 9 percent at first and more later. Its low back pain cohort is Physicians specializing in anesthesiology, pain management, interventional pain management, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, or physical medicine and rehabilitation, for those attributed at least 20 low back pain episodes a year in selected areas, and its goals include working more closely with primary care. Whether your surgeons are on CMS's 2027 participant list is a question for your billing team.

For an independent group that changes two things. Patients who can have surgery at your ASC need a page that explains the setting, who qualifies (the surgeon decides, never the ad) and which insurance you take. Hospitals in TEAM's selected areas already answer for the 30 days after discharge from an Original Medicare joint replacement, and from January 1, 2028, CJR-X brings most other hospitals in for 90 days. CMS's reason, from its July 31, 2026 announcement: Episode-based payments motivate hospitals, surgeons, and post-acute providers to collaborate to help patients recover while reducing avoidable hospitalizations, complications, and unnecessary costs for Medicare and taxpayers. CMS's fact sheet names no procedure, so before a page says a procedure is done at your ASC, we check it against your surgeons and the current code list.

What do Google, Meta and TikTok allow for orthopedic ads?

Orthopedic ads can run on Google and Meta, and both platforms name arthritis in their limits. Each rule in its own words, read October 28, 2026:

One more line from Meta matters for joint replacement, where many patients are older: its personal attributes standard also bars copy that singles out the reader's age. We reach older adults through targeting and plain words about the care, never by naming the reader's age or body.

What can an orthopedic ad or surgeon bio claim?

What you can prove, approved by the surgeon. Five rules meet here:

1. Outcome claims need proof

   The FTC holds health claims to a standard it calls competent and reliable scientific evidence, so "faster recovery" or "less pain" needs studies that fit your patients, or it stays out. On stem cell, exosome and other regenerative medicine products, the FDA is plain: None of these products have been approved for the treatment of any orthopedic condition, such as osteoarthritis, tendonitis, disc disease, tennis elbow, back pain, hip pain, knee pain, neck pain, or shoulder pain.

2. Patient stories need a signature

   Under HIPAA, a covered entity must obtain an authorization for any use or disclosure of protected health information for marketing. A patient's recovery story runs only after the patient signs one, and because the FTC reads a featured result as typical, we state what patients generally get beside it. State rules can add more: Texas requires a disclaimer about the credentials of the person giving a testimonial and a disclosure of any compensation for it.

3. Athletes need a disclosure

   An athlete's connection to your practice must be disclosed when the audience would not expect it and it could change how they weigh the praise. The FTC's own example is a tennis player and a surgery clinic: It should be disclosed even if the relationship involves no payments but only the tennis player getting the laser correction surgery for free or at a significantly reduced cost.

4. Board statements, word for word

   Patients in the 2024 survey ranked board certification first. ABOS says a surgeon who has passed its Part I exam but not yet its Part II oral exam is deemed Board Eligible. Texas treats "board eligible" in physician advertising as misleading, and California allows a board certification statement only for boards that meet its test, such as an American Board of Medical Specialties member board. We write each bio to the rule of the state where that surgeon practices.

5. Why the surgeon approves every ad

   The AAOS advertising standard holds the surgeon responsible for any violations of this Standard of Professionalism incurred by a public relations, advertising, or similar firm the surgeon retains. So every ad and bio we write goes to the surgeon for approval before it runs.

And no review is bought or hidden: the FTC's review rule bars paying for reviews expressing a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative, and bars showing reviews as complete when bad ones are suppressed.

How does PELORA run orthopedic marketing?

On two fronts at once, measured where they meet: the consult.

1. Rules and claims first

   We read the live platform policies, your state medical board's advertising rule and the AAOS standard, and check every surgeon's board statement before anything is built.

2. Accounts in your name

   Your ad accounts belong to you, and you pay the platforms directly. Call and form tracking is set up with your counsel, and no patient or condition lists are uploaded to any of them.

3. What a referred patient checks

   Each surgeon's page, board statement and insurance list checked against the rules, with fixes listed for your web team, and review replies on one location's Google Business Profile. Site edits and new pages are priced first.

4. Ads for patients who search

   Google or Meta ads on injuries, conditions and procedures in your cities, to adults, landing on a page checked against the same rules.

5. The surgeon approves

   Every ad, bio and article goes to the surgeon it names before it runs.

6. Measure consults and surgeries

   Calls, forms, consults booked and surgeries scheduled, by surgeon and location, from the platforms and your own counts, reported every month.

How is this different from what ranks for an orthopedic agency today?

Google showed these top five organic results for "orthopedic marketing agency" on October 28, 2026: three agency pages, an agency's ranking list and a contact-data directory. Here is what they show a buyer:

Counted from all five results, read October 28, 2026. One is a contact-data directory and counts as no on every check.