September 2003

Adapt -- or die

by Dr. Eric Plasker

There has never been a better time for chiropractors to positively impact health care in our nation than today as both providers and patients move away from allopathic answers and toward more comprehensive and integrative health solutions. In fact, D.C.s everywhere are facing important decisions about their practices and the destiny and direction of the profession. They are decisions that will cause them to either adapt or die because they must be able to serve the needs of a changing health care market.

Even though health care is moving towards a CAM (complimentary alternative medicine) environment for total health solutions, it is doubtful that insurance companies will respond by providing the monetary resources to create coverage for the complete health care needs of their insurers.

With this in mind, it's not only the D.C. but patients who must understand and see that the revenues that their insurance company provides truly represent only a contribution to their total health care.

When I ran two successful family practices, I found it helpful and profitable to view insurance companies as a contributor to my patients' care rather than the sole resource or responsible party for their health. I made sure to share this view with my patients during health talks and other conversations so they would understand their health was ultimately their responsibility, not that of their insurance carrier.

One of the greatest challenges D.C.s have today in converting or maintaining a wellness-oriented rather than a symptom- oriented practice, is that insurance will pay for 80-100% of the symptom care but little or nothing of the wellness care. This means that when patients are coming more frequently (for intensive care), they are paying less out of pocket, and when they come less often (for wellness care), they are paying more out of pocket. It's a paradox in patient care that causes so many offices to have to say goodbye to many of their clients.

However, if you learn to make recommendations based on the total care that people need in order to maintain health for themselves and their families and present the total cost bundled together of insurance and out-of-pocket money up front, your patient's will never see the inconsistencies or feel the pain of having to pay more later.

When you bundle and budget care out for your patients in this manner, they'll commit to long-term care and take control of and responsibility for their own health without hesitation.

For example, let's say that you chose to buy a particular car because you liked it and could afford the monthly payments. Then you decided to add on some additional features or options that increased the price, like a DVD or CD player or navigation system. These additional features wouldn't be added on as a separate monthly bill would they? You would expect the car company to bundle these additional items or services into the original monthly invoice.

This is the way that 90% of companies operate, and chiropractors should be running their practices in the same way. You will do your practice and your patients a favor when you bundle together the long-term wellness or cash portions of your care with the insurance or symptomatic portions for a total and complete health care program.

It's time that -- as a profession -- we chiropractors package our care in a way that coincides with what society wants. Everybody wants and needs chiropractic care. They just need to be shown how to participate in it in a way that makes good physical and fiscal sense.

Adapt to today's marketplace. Start bundling your fees together as a total health care package, and you'll marvel at how many of your patients will stay and pay for a lifetime.