My office manager just got off the phone with the secretary of a long-standing patient. I have treated this woman and 10 members of her family for more than a decade. She has, as have all of my patients, paid my fee at the time of service since I dropped insurance in 1997. Yet here was this patient, aware of our office policy for 10-plus years, still asking us to deal with her insurance company.
Do you see what Donna adroitly did? She sent this clear and unwavering message:"Dr. Charles did his work in that he successfully treated your boss, who is now feeling great. Our job is not to waste our precious time to haggle with your insurance company to fork over money that is rightly the doctor's – or once you drop insurance, the patient's."
Setting the Stage
All patients are like children in a certain sense and need to be treated, even outside the treatment room, with a loving, but stern demeanor. It is human nature for people, even the nicest of people, to generally try to get away with whatever they can. If you are learning and growing in healing knowledge every year, you are providing one of the most valuable services to humanity, to each and every person you toil and sweat over. You are providing natural health care and relieving suffering without making people dependent on addictive drugs. Please pause and absorb the magnitude of this noble endeavor.
You must appreciate what it is you do and hold yourself in high esteem first and foremost if you expect to be able to do what I am now going to teach you to do. If you do not have a high degree of self-respect, neither will your patients. And if your patients do not respect you, regardless of how much they like you, they absolutely will not pay you for your services out of their own pockets. I guarantee it!
Four Steps to Drop Insurance
It may seem daunting, but please remember the old adage, How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Here are bite-sized steps you can implement today to drop insurance from your practice.
1. Look in the mirror and ask yourself these questions. Be brutally honest and do not try to con yourself.
- Are you proud of the service(s) you provide your patients?
- Can you do what you do better?
- Is your work in any way superior to your neighboring chiropractors?
- Are you present-time conscious when you are with patients or does your mind wander?
- Why should someone pay you at the time of service and not make you wait for insurance?
- Would you want to be treated the way you treat patients? In other words, would you want to be treated by you? Is there someone else you know who is better, more knowledgeable or more thorough? If yes, then immediately contact that doctor and start getting mentored; it is worth the investment.
2. Prepare a letter or email (you should be collecting the emails of all of your patients) and send out an announcement that as of __/__/__, you will be not be letting insurance companies influence your crucial treatments and affecting you or your patients' health care decisions. If you would like a sample form letter you can work off, feel free to contact me (
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3. Decide what you are worth hourly and work off that model. For instance, if you feel you are worth $200 an hour – great. Nex,t decide how many patients you can effectively see in that time frame to get the results you and your patients expect. This is crucial because your patients will now demand results, and rightly so. You can charge one patient $200 for an hour appointment; two patients $100 for half-hour sessions; four patients $50 for 15-minute sessions; and so forth.
Remember, it is not how many people you treat; it is how many you heal. Likewise, it not how much you money make; it is how much you keep. This amount of money you make: a) at the time of service with no waiting; b) without having to hire staff to haggle with insurance companies; and c) freeing time to see more patients, turns this $200-an-hour fee into significantly more in real dollars.
4. Do this as soon as possible with all new patients as you maintain your income from your existing patients. After six months to a year, transition your existing patients as well. If you have built a bond over the years, they should stay. If not, then you know what you were worth to them. Obviously not much; but with your new high level of self-respect, you do not want anyone in your life who does not respect you as much as you do.
No Better Time Than Now
I believe the same traits that make you a very good chiropractor can make you a very bad businessperson. Spoiling patients does not make you a good doctor and is not the same as making them responsible for their health. This also applies to compensating you for your expertise in helping them.
Follow these small steps and make plans to drop insurance now, if you haven't already done so. Your work will be more rewarding because you can focus all of your energies to healing the sick, not getting them to pay you. And isn't that why you became a doctor?
Dr. Eugene Charles graduated from the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic in 1987 and attained a diplomate in applied kinesiology in 1994. He has certified hundreds of doctors in A.K. through his seminars and DVD programs, and recently developed the first online A.K. certification course. Dr. Charles is also the author of Precision Adjusting for the Master Chiropractor and the Practice Leadership Program; learn more at www.charlesseminars.com.