Cash services abound in OccMed in every U.S. city, with new occupational medicine job opportunities in 2020
Occupational medicine jobs provides DCs with huge income opportunities and low cost to start up, in addition to respect as a doctor from companies, cities, counties, state and federal agencies in local areas, while generating new patients — all in a cash environment without insurance.
Occupational medicine is the branch of healing services that deals with the safety and wellness of people who work in certain occupations that are hazardous, or deal with hazardous materials. The U.S. government mandates that certain health services be performed on a routine basis to monitor workers, and the entity that hires the workers has to pay cash for the services.
Multiple service options
Any DC who wants to perform and get paid cash for these services can, with only a few exceptions, do this work in every single town in America. There are at least 14 services which DCs are able to provide, and more are being added every year.
The occupational medicine jobs list includes: physicals, drug tests, alcohol tests, pulmonary function tests, respirator fit tests, review of OSHA mandatory respirator questionnaire, hearing tests, heavy metal evaluation, X-ray for asbestosis and tuberculosis, vision testing, diabetic glucose monitoring, sleep apnea testing, functional evaluations, and more.
The chiropractic practice fit
When a company calls to say they are hiring 15 new employees to work at the plant, each one is required to have a physical, drug test, hearing test, OSHA Questionnaire, PFT, respirator fit test, alcohol test, heavy metal test, chest X-ray, functional lifting evaluation, and color vision test.
For 15 workers that works out to: $65+$45+$40+$25+$40+$40+$25+$300+$45+$100+$20 = $705 x 15 people = $10,575 in one day — in cash.
A DC may think, “But how am I going to do all that work when I’m busy with regular chiropractic patients?” While adjusting regular patients, a DC can utilize their trained assistant (CA) to attend to these 15 workers. A CA can do everything except the doctor’s part of the physical, which takes a DC 3-5 minutes for each person. So through one day a DC can see approximately 35 regular patients, and the CA gets them ready. Each time they have a physical ready, the DC can stop adjusting patients and do a physical in 3-5 minutes, then come back to the adjusting room to resume adjusting patients.
End-day numbers
By the end of the day the numbers work out to:
Adjusted 35 patients at an average of $80 per person, that’s 35x $80 = $2,800;
Processed 15 workers x $705 = $10,575, at the same time using my CA as an extension to increase dollars per hour revenue income;
So now instead of working 8 hours for $2,800 ($350 per hour), a DC can now produce 8 hours for $2,800 + $10,575 = $13,375 ($1,671.88 per hour), more than five times the revenue, in a single day.
Or better yet is this scenario: A company calls and says they need 200 hearing tests. A DC sends their trained assistant to the company site for two days, and they perform 200 hearing tests at $40 each = $8,000, while the DC adjusts patients for those two days. How much time is spent? How much does it cost to get the equipment and train your CA to do hearing testing? About $1,500 for the equipment and $750 to train them.
Finding occupational medicine jobs
So the first time you do a company hearing test you recoup all your money and then it’s gravy after that.
How does one know that there is work in their town? Remember the government mandate? Every driver under DOT needs physicals, drug and alcohol testing. That’s not only drivers of 18-wheelers but also drivers of cement trucks, bucket trucks for cable/electric/phone companies, tow trucks, gravel/dump/garbage trucks, railroad workers, airline workers, ship workers, pipeline workers, bus or subway workers, and also school districts, city workers, county workers, state workers, and federal workers, as well as large chain stores like Lowe’s/UPS/Walmart/Target, companies that assemble or manufacture, banks, grocery stores, etc.
In fact, almost 90% of all businesses do some of this testing either because of federal mandate, or state law that gives them a discount on their workers comp insurance if they provide a safe work environment by testing.
Creating partnerships
Two other important things happen when one does OccMed for local businesses. They finally see the DC not as a “chiropractor” who just makes their workers comp rates go up, but truly as a “doctor health care partner” who helps them achieve their company goals of meeting the safety standards set by the federal government so they don’t get fined, and keeping their workers healthy to enable production and income for the company’s financial success.
Companies see DCs as equal partners and begin to offer workers comp claims by making DCs the “company doctor.”
DCs will also find many, many employees asking if they can become a patient, especially when exams are done and they are told that many of their problems can be fixed without taking pills.
Income, prestige and new patients are the end result of performing occupational medicine jobs as part of clinic services to the community.
JAMES RAKER, DC, has been in private practice in Texarkana, Ark., for 30 years and is the company doctor for several large companies with 300-1,200 employees. He is the owner of OccMed For DCs and can be reached at OccMedForDCs@gmail.com for more information.
