Bonus checks for your practice
By Eric Plasker, DC

What time is the mail delivered to your office each day? For some chiropractors, mail delivery is the “high point” of their day because they depend on that mail not only for their own survival, but also for their practice’s.

It may be hard to admit, but most of us have been guilty of waiting for that magic moment when the friendly man or woman in blue hands over our insurance reimbursements.

If there are checks in the mail, then our enthusiasm and self-esteem get an immediate elevation. But on bad days when the mail produces no checks, our mood can drop to a depressed state.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get off of this “postal” roller coaster!

Instead of scheduling your operations around such randomness, why not structure your practice income to be independent of the mail and insurance business? Imagine the possibilities for you and your practice if you knew that your livelihood and lifestyle were guaranteed regardless of what came in the mail. In fact, wouldn’t it be better if, when you received an insurance check, you saw it for what it really is — just a bonus?

How do you set your practice up this way? Do you have to give up your insurance practice to achieve this goal? The answer is no.

Lifetime patients who pay for their care out of pocket are the key to setting up your practice this way. Here are three quick tips for creating this transformation

1. Become a teacher. Establish an educational system in your practice to teach the value of chiropractic care, which creates compliance with patients.

Lifetime care starts with educating people in a manner that will make them want to participate in lifetime chiropractic care with their families (just like you) regardless of their insurance.

2. Make the care consistent, not sporadic. Don’t tell people to come in whenever they feel pain. Using the patient’s perception of pain as an indicator of when they should come in for treatment is a recipe for a disappearing patient.

The consistency of the care should depend on the patient’s lifestyle, health goals, and the current condition of his or her spine. A person’s lifetime wellness care can vary from one adjustment a week to one adjustment a month, depending on these factors. However, whatever the care plan — make it consistent.

3. Create a specific and clear payment option. About 50 percent of patients choose wellness care if they know it’s an option. If there’s no option, nobody chooses. Make a financial policy for wellness care that makes it simple and easy for patients to participate.

EMPHASIZE VALUE

One of the reasons why you get adjusted is because you feel as though you need it and because you value it. You know what it will do for you. Most of us don’t have to pay for that service either because we have colleagues who will provide it to us as a professional courtesy.

But, you probably pay them anyway because you understand the value of what they’re offering you.

This is the value that you must speak about when you are talking to current and prospective patients. When you speak about the value of chiropractic care in this way, you will discover that people will pay you regardless of their insurance and long after their benefits have stopped paying.

If you do this, your practice will begin collecting more cash and can become less dependent on insurance. Then when an insurance payment does or does not come in the mail, it truly becomes what it should be — a bonus check, not an earthshaking, “income breaking” event.

No matter how dependent you think your practice is on insurance, you can become less dependent if you learn how to teach and confidently communicate the value of chiropractic to your community.

CASH HAS ITS ADVANTAGES

Many chiropractors are wary of making the transition to a cash practice because they are afraid it will mean a loss in their short- or long-term revenue. But, if you get 20 new patients and they all start paying you cash, do you think your collections would go up or down? Would your net increase or decrease?

Of course, it would go up instantly, because instead of waiting for the money in the mail, you are collecting it right up front. What a concept!

If you want to get paid for the services you render, at the time of service, then set your fee and communication systems so that they can create value for your patients even beyond what their insurance is willing to pay.

Receiving insurance bonus checks is as easy as speaking the truth. Have confidence in your fees and communication because when people are educated, they will make the right decision. Put communication and fee systems in place to immediately begin receiving bonus checks and build the family practice of your dreams.

Eric Plasker, DC, is the founder of The Family Practice — a chiropractic coaching and training organization that provides the systems, tools, and support to build a highly successful and profitable family practice. He can be reached at 866-LEAD-DCS (532-3327), ext. 118, or visit the Web site at www.thefamilypractice.net.