Chiropractic Business Tips

Practice Central Many providers view the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) as an irritant they wish would disappear. Given the sheer volume of requirements placed on doctors, this sentiment is hard to deny. However, the HIPAA rules won’t vanish, so you may as well elevate your understanding of these standards. In the process you may discover that the rules for the workforce security standard (found at §164.308(a)(3)) are sensible and easy to implement.

In Focus In early 2015, Chiropractic Economics reported on the merger of ChiroTouch and Future Health, two of the largest vendors of EHR systems for doctors of chiropractic. This merger was notable in that two major competitors in the software industry had chosen to combine forces. And in so doing, they were able to merge their technologies and offer a more robust EHR system, under the flagship ChiroTouch brand.

Practice Central If you want your employees to be consistent in their handling of customer interactions and office policies, then written procedures are necessary for your practice. You don’t need a procedure for basic office protocol, but tasks that are complex, involve multiple steps, or deal with compliance should be carefully docu­mented. Make sure your employees are properly trained on these written procedures, too.

Legal Q&A Q: My practice is located in a mid-sized community and is doing well. I would like to give back to my community but, at the same time, I need my income to pay for overhead, marketing and salaries. Any thoughts? A: President Trump has announced that the opioid epidemic is a national public health emergency. He has directed all executive agencies to use every appropriate emergency authority to fight the opioid crisis.

Money Management You may have patients who use third-party payers, usually insurance companies, and some of your patients may be paying you in cash. But there’s an alternative option available—a patient financing company. In this model, the financing company pays the chiropractor within a few days of the provision of services and bills the patient separately. Some potential clients coming into your office may have sticker shock.

If you’d like to own a chiro­practic office where there’s no third party telling you what you can charge, cutting your payments and demanding stacks of documenta­tion, then you are in the right place. Imagine this same office packed with people clamoring to get their spine checked because they understand the value of regular chiropractic care. Not only does that sound exciting but it is also awesome to impact so many people’s lives in a positive way, while at the same time moving chiropractic toward a higher level of cultural authority.