• Magazine
    • Past Issues
    • Subscribe
    • Change Mailing Address
    • Surveys
    • Guidelines for Authors
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Editorial Deadlines
    • Dynamic Chiropractic
      • Newspaper
      • Subscription
    • The American Chiropractor
      • Magazine
  • Practice
    • Business Tips
    • Chiropractic Schools
    • Clinical & Technique
    • eBooks
    • eCourses
    • Sponsored Content
    • Infographics
    • Quizzes
    • Wellness & Nutrition
    • Personal Growth
    • Podcast
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
  • Resource Centers
  • Products & Services
    • Buyers Guide
    • Products Directory
    • Submit a Product
    • Vendor Login
  • Datebook
    • Become an Events Poster
    • Post an Event
    • View Events
  • Jobs
    • Jobs
    • Post a Job
  • Advertise
    • Advertising Information
    • Media Kit
    • Contact Us

Your Online Chiropractic Community

Chiropractic Economics Your Online Chiropractic Community
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • News
  • Webinars
  • Chiropractic Research
  • Students

Adding income with instruments

Chiropractic Economics October 1, 2005

by Warren Hammer

Soft-tissue mobilization (STM) rates high as an income-generating modality and in patient benefit.

But, unfortunately, STM can be a big a pain in the hand — so much so that chiropractors who perform STM risk cutting short their careers due to serious problems that can develop in their fingers and wrists after just a few years of working on motion-restricting scar tissue and fascial adhesions.

A viable solution: Use an instrument-assisted form of STM instead. An instrument eliminates damage potential to the hands and, as a bonus, dramatically increases efficacy — much to the delight of patients, referring physicians, and third-party payers.

The reason: Efficiency increases because instruments magnify the clinician’s ability to feel the site of restriction pathology. Instruments can find restrictive soft tissue barriers that are undetectable by ordinary palpation. Instrument-assisted soft-tissue mobilization can provide an economic boost to your practice.

For example, it:

• Opens up your schedule. You’ll find it still takes about the same amount of time per visit as before to mobilize the soft tissues when you use instruments. However, you need fewer patient visits to obtain a good result. With fewer visits per patient required, you have more time available in your schedule to take new patients.

• Scores points with third-party payers. Payers angling to issue fewer reimbursement checks will appreciate that you only need to see patients half or even one-third
as many times as would otherwise be necessary. Employers likewise will be happy, because instrumented STM can reduce their health insurance and workers’ compensation costs by shortening the time it takes to return injured employees to the job.

• Strengthens your position in the marketplace. Results produced by instrument-assisted STM can help burnish your reputation as a practitioner who wants to get patients better, faster.

• Jump-starts your referrals engine. Because IASTM improves patient satisfaction, patients tend to refer more to your clinic. Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization also is a good tool for boosting referrals from medical doctors. For example: After achieving a good result with IASTM, I detail that
accomplishment in a note to the patient’s regular or referring physician (with the patient’s permission, of course).

The followup note is an effective tool that shows medical doctors the value of referring patients.

Suggestion: I’ve found it helpful to include in the followup note references to the many published studies demonstrating the validity of instrument-assisted
STM.

• Makes economic sense. Although you must make an investment your choice of instruments, the investment begins paying dividends almost immediately.

• Lengthens your career. When you use an instrument to assist in soft-tissue mobilization, you save wear and tear on your hands. This relief enables you to carry on a
productive practice for a longer period of time.

Warren Hammer, DC, MS, DABCO, owns Hands On Therapeutics in Norwalk, Conn. He is the author of a widely used textbook, Functional Soft Tissue Examination and Treatment by Manual Methods: New Perspectives (a third edition is due out soon). Hammer is a certified Graston Technique instructor and can be contacted at 2039664572 or by email at softissu@optonline.net.

Related Posts

  • Making the perfect site selectionMaking the perfect site selection
  • Privacy, security, and the HITECH ActPrivacy, security, and the HITECH Act
  • How direct mail postcards and campaigns bring back patientsHow direct mail postcards and campaigns bring back patients
  • F4CP, NCMIC, Foot Levelers partner to provide New Graduate Practitioner Toolkit for chiropractorsF4CP, NCMIC, Foot Levelers partner to provide New Graduate Practitioner Toolkit for chiropractors
  • Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research: two manuscripts publishedPalmer Center for Chiropractic Research: two manuscripts published
  • Your personal growth influences your professional growthYour personal growth influences your professional growth

Filed Under: Instrument Adjusting, Resource Center

Current Issue

CE issue 5 cover

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube logoYouTube logoYouTube

Compare Subscriptions

Dynamic Chiropractic

The American Chiropractor

3948 3rd Street South #279,

Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250

Phone 904.285.6020

CONTACT US »

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Copyright © 2021, All Rights Reserved

SUBSCRIBE TO THE MAGAZINE

Get Chiropractic Economics magazine
delivered to your home or office. Just
fill out our form to request your FREE
subscription for 20 issues a year,
including two annual Buyers Guides.

SUBSCRIBE NOW »

Latest Chiropractic News

  • Cleveland University-Kansas City Launches New Continuing Education Website
  • New Report Cites Nutrition Response Testing® Helping Chiropractors Increase Value and Results
  • Military Husband and Wife Team Set to Expand The Joint Chiropractic into Puerto Rico