Dr. Jeff Shebovsky was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the University of the State of New York, at Albany, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. Subsequently, he continued his studies at New York Chiropractic College, where he graduated cum laude, in December of 1991. Dr. Shebovsky, a frequent lecturer within his community on health, stress, and injury prevention issues, established his practice in Orlando, Florida, in April of 1994, and currently has a multidisciplinarx practice, which specializes in injury care and family practice. Dr. Shebovsky is married and has two children. In an interview with The American Chiropractor (TAC). Dr. Jeffrey N. Shebovsky (JNS) gives us an insider's view of a million-dollar practice. TAC: Dr. Shebovsky, tell us a little bit about your practice. JNS: My practice is primarily insurance based. Approximately 90% is insurance. 10% cash/self-pay. Approximately 40-45% is personal injury, 40-45% general health insurance (both in and out of network PFO and POS plans). Maybe 1% is Medicare, and virtually none are HMO patients. Our practice is multidisciplinary, which includes myself, an associate chiropractor, a medical doctor, a physical therapist, and one f"u 11-and one part-time mas- sage therapist. We stick to muscu-loskeletal care with our multidiscipli-nary approach. We DO NOT do any family medicine, and our medical physician in no way replaces anyone's family doctor. He just co-manages and medically directs the patients' care in the office. The physical therapist, in that case, works under his prescription. Our practice philosophy has not changed at all since integrating the practice. We still do the same report of findings and educate our patients on chiropractic. All the patients know the most important aspect of their care at our office is the adjustment. The medical doctor knows this, as well, and also gets adjustments regularly. TAC: It's really impressive that your practice is 90% insurance-based, especially since many people claim that the day of the insurance practice is over. Can you explain a little more about your experience with getting reimbursed and working with the insurance companies? JNS: I started my practice in 1994, just when managed care was starting to sweep the nation. I tried to get on a lot of plans, but they were already tied up by other chiropractors. HMO's were becoming very popular. At first, I was a little worried about what would happen. It's obvious now that HMO's are on their way out. At that time, I just worked hard to get new patients, however I could: and. even though I was not on any plans (HMO), I still got lots of new patients (PI and PPO, as well as cash). Every year since 1994. my practice Gross and Net has increased, despite the gloom and doom predictions of the so-called experts. This year, our 6th year in practice, we doubled our gross income over last year's and, more importantly, my net has doubled as well. There is no easy way to work with insurance companies, but I think the key is to know as much as you can about billing and coding. It is vitally important to know which codes to bill for what you have done, and to use the proper modifiers, so as not to delay reimbursement or have your claim denied. / have found that the single most important thing in an insurance practice is for the doctor to absolutely know what each ami every insurance company covers or does not cover. This cannot be left up to the staff alone. The doctor MUST be on top of it. I am always shocked when I hear how little some doctors are involved with the business of their practice. Some doctors want to just treat patients, and that's all. I feel that my success in practice is, in a great part, due to the fact that I am into everything in my practice. The staff know that if they make a mistake, I will almost always catch it. This is the key to having an insurance practice...knowing the insurance inside and out, and, it goes without saying, good documentation. TAC: What is the income service level that you provide annually? JNS: This is kind of a private issue; so. let's just say that, since this interview is a part of "The Millionaire Series", my practice has well exceeded the title. TAC: What marketing strategies do you use to attract new patients, and ; to keep current patients? j JNS: I employ a part-time marketing I person (Director of Public Relations). I We do a lot of screenings at health fairs of large employers, such as Disney, AT&T, etc., as well as big shows at the convention center, like the Southern Women's show. We do two "Theme" open houses per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Also, lots of attorney lunches. One thing that I'm really excited about is working with the area MD's to get their referrals for chiropractic, as well as PT. My marketing person sets up lunch, where we bring lunch to the MD's office for their entire staff. They get to know us and we get to know them. Besides the doctor, we especially want to get to know the referral coordinator. I have found that, in most practices, the doctor leaves it up to the referral coordinator to make the referral. Particularly with Personal Injury cases, the MD's really don't want to see them. We let them know that we will be glad to see all their PI cases, and we will send them reports. What's good about this is that, many times, a patient in a car accident will go see his or her family doctor first. If the MD, then, refers them to us, we are in a position to refer the patient to an attorney, if they need one. This helps us to be able to send more cases to attorneys, which makes them feel the need to send more to us. My goal for 2001 is 20 new patients per month, or 5 per week, just from j area MD's. This would be an extra 20 j per month on top of what we are j already doing. I feel that the biggest j potential for new patients is in net- j working with the medical community j (if you find the right MD's). If it | works, we will never have to do any ! other marketing. We also do numerous other promo tions throughout the year like "Bone out of Place" postcard mailings and j other neat ideas. j Internally, we do health care talks j and a lot of patient education like | "condition of the week'". Many j patients come in lor a particular prob- j lem and don't even realize the wide I array of other things we can treat, so [ we talk about different things each j week. The most common thing 1 hear ! is, "I didn't know chiropractic could help that." That's our opportunity to educate! TAC: Do you enjoy your work? How do you feel about going to work in the morning? JNS: I very much enjoy my work. I look forward to going to work in the morning because I know, at the end of the day, I will have helped make a difference in so many lives. The only thing I don't look forward to is the paperwork and insurance hassles. TAC: Is there someone else—a mentor, perhaps—to whom you attribute your success? JNS: 1, mainly, attribute my success to myself. I have worked extremely hard and have been very dedicated to achieving certain goals. I am a very driven person and. believe it or not, my motivation has come primarily from people who doubted me or said I couldn't do it. In other words, 1 love to prove the "nay sayers" wrong. Along the way. though, I do have some people to thank for helping me succeed. When I started practice. I joined a practice consulting service. They helped with my initial office procedures and. more importantly, introduced me to a new way of thinking. They helped me get my "head" in the right place, which was so important to my early success. Later. I joined a practice coaching company. The president of the company and my original coach. Dr. Mark Sanna. is certainly one of my mentors. He had been my coach when I started my original chiropractic practice. Then, he started another branch of his company for multidisciplinary practice. We integrated the practice in September 1999. and it has been nothing short of amazing. His protocols and procedures make it relatively stress free and easy to have a successfully integrated practice. Dr. Sanna had a very successful practice, himself, in Connecticut, and I once told him, after integrating my practice. "I want to be like a little Mark Sanna." In other words. I wanted to emulate him and his practice. I'm not quite there, yet: but. I'm still mentoring. Another mentor of mine is Dr. Jeffrey Lewin. Dr. Lewin was 2 years ahead of me in chiropractic school. I was assigned to him as his student patient while he was an intern at the school outpatient clinic. After graduation. Dr. Lewin moved from New York to Florida, and started a practice with a partner. We kept in touch, and I always visited him and "picked his brain", whenever I was in Florida. As fate would have it. I also moved to Florida and continued to learn from Dr. Lewin (who. by the way. is a great teacher). I eventually opened my practice about 200 miles from Dr. Lewin. We had kept in touch, and (another twist of fate) Dr. Lewin became a: coach with Dr. Sanna's company. He' is now my practice coach, and I'm still learning from him. Dr. Lewin is a genuine person, who always knows the right thing to say to get you back on track to success. I would also like to acknowledge my awesome staff. I am grateful for such a supportive staff, for without them I could not possibly run a successful practice. They are the best! TAC: Do you have any additional comments or advice for our readers? JNS: I would like to add that you can have a successful practice, even in this day and age. with good old fashioned hard work, honesty and integrity. It is important to have a good practice coach, as I have had. since the first day I started practice. Of course, setting goals and having a plan are very important, together with a burning desire to achieve all your dreams. Never stop dreaming and always stay focused! You may contact Dr. Shebovsky at 407-857-6166. Editor's Note: Do you have a million dollar practice that you 'd like TAC to highlight in our Millionaire Series? Contact TAC'.v editor. Jaclyn Busch. by phone/fax: 1-305-716-9212 or email at: amechiro@sint'o.net. We want your inspiring story! Contact us todav.' O PROFILE PERSONAL •Happily married 8 years to. wife, Carol. •2 daughters. Brook (4) and Erica (6 months). •Hobbies: Softball, golf, weightlifting, bowling, and magic. •Professional Associations: ACA, FCA, CFCA. •Vacations per Year: About 3-4 weeks total. •Work Week: 9 to 7:30 MWF; 9 to 7 Tues. & Th. PRACTICE PARTICULARS • Office Hours: MWF 9:30-1:00 & 3:00-6:30; T TH 2:00-6:00 • Techniques: Diversified,Flexion-Distraction and Drop primarily; Activator and SOT on certain patients; manual therapy techniques, such as post-isometric stretching; physical therapy and massage therapy.
