April 2006

Save chiropractic ‑‑ build your practice

by Dr. CJ Mertz

As I travel, my audiences are growing more concerned about the fate of chiropractic. What's it going to look like? Who are the leaders to follow? Is there technology I should be moving toward? How will students prepare for the practice of the future? How can I take part in securing the success of chiropractic? Why are so many practices returning to a cash‑based practice? Should I?

These are just a few of the many questions on the hearts and minds of your colleagues in the field. I'd like to ease your heart and provide some answers to these questions.

Our great profession is experiencing an identity crisis, which will likely cause one of two seismic shifts. Chiropractic will either move in the direction of several subspecialties all under one roof or split into two or three different movements heading in opposite directions. There are pros and cons to both evolutions. Yet, neither compares to one united profession. The likelihood of one chiropractic fades by the day because of the number of enormous egos and the size of the bridge needed to cross the political chasm.

Ironically, the much bigger picture is where we will be positioned inside the quickly developing wellness movement. At this junction, it's anybody's game and still up for grabs. Many industries are vying for its leadership role, and chiropractic would be wise to lay down our differences to pursue this greater purpose.

Dr. Guy Riekeman, president of Life University and visionary, has revolutionized Life College in the past two years. His vision of where chiropractic can be in the year 2020 is awesome and something to support. Dr. Riekeman's track record and popularity create tremendous confidence and hope for our future.

His commitment to the success of Life graduates as they enter the field has set a new standard unparalleled in chiropractic. I believe his new strategy, which includes utilizing Team WLP's student coaching program inside the Life University curriculum, will make an historical impact on the success of the field. This new partnership is a highly progressive model for other chiropractic colleges to follow. This bodes incredibly well for the graduating classes over the next decade, and should provide a tremendous infusion of highly successful, subluxation‑based chiropractors into the field.

The most profitable practices in America are being operated by chiropractors who have decided to build cash‑based practices (70% cash or more). They're happier and feel more overall purpose because of the tremendous freedom that comes from not having to deal with insurance companies.

There's also a phenomenal trend, whether you're cash or insurance, toward establishing a paperless practice. State‑of‑the‑art software has taken chiropractic by storm and is spreading like wildfire. I predict, within the next two or three years, practices running by paper (or antiquated software programs) will be a thing of the past. Automation is bringing the professionalism of chiropractic into the 21st century and is actually increasing the profit of those practices dramatically.

Our company is fewer than 90 franchises away from achieving the budget needed to advertise corrective and wellness care on CNN nationwide. This is projected to occur by as early as 2007 and promises to help shift the direction chiropractors are taking with their practices like nothing ever before. It will be offer a great boost to the confidence level of would‑be subluxation‑based DCs, encouraging them to join together to complete the mission of making subluxation a household word.

The biggest practices in the world are being built in 2006. Chiropractic is exploding for on‑purpose chiropractors who have decided to develop lifetime family wellness practices. Doctors who are operating pain relief centers are experiencing the greatest difficulty in growth. They'll continue to do so as the public seems to have decided on looking for professionals dedicated to wellness. There's never been a better time to open a practice from scratch for those DCs committed to building high volume corrective and wellness care practices.

The best thing you could do to help strengthen chiropractic is double your practice. The fewer drugs your community is taking and the more people who are getting adjusted will transform the medical paradigm to the innate paradigm within the minds and hearts of the people of your city or town. Politically, it's likely that infighting will cause things to continue to move slowly in chiropractic, so real growth appears to rest with national advertising and publications branding us as family wellness experts. And, the quicker we're separated from the image of pain relief doctors, the faster the public will respond to chiropractic.

(Dr. CJ Mertz is executive director of ChiroUSA, and founder and head coach of the prestigious Waiting List Practice [WLP] chiropractic training organization. See the WLP 300 patient per week opportunity on the back page of this issue. For information on WLP coaching services, call Tony Shinn at 877‑TEAM‑WLP.)