Whether you operate a clinic or are considering chiropractic as a career, there’s huge potential for a thriving enterprise. The American Chiropractic Association states that around 35 million people seek chiropractic care every year, driving a growing industry worth $18.5 billion. (IBIS Worldwide, 2021)
Naturally, this means that competition is also thriving, with more than 70,000 chiropractors offering their services. Let’s discuss some of the most effective steps your practice can take to stand out from the crowd.
Start as You Mean to Go on
Being compliant with coding, documentation, rules, and regulations is the bedrock of establishing and maintaining a thriving business. Adhering to what payers, governing bodies, and the public expect from you is the hallmark of a professional clinic and requires a strong understanding of both administrative and ethical best practices.
Clinical care, not compliance, is a top focus in practice, which means that many requirements by payers and regulatory bodies fall to the wayside. By not making compliance a top priority within your practice, you expose your business and license to unnecessary risk. Outsourcing compliance is a smart way to stay compliant without taking time away from your patients. Some benefits to outsourcing include lower labor costs and access to specialized help from people who are experts in documentation, billing, audit prep, and much more. (Patel, 2017) Outsourcing compliance will also help keep your clinic current and compliant with health laws and practice expectations while avoiding penalties from OSHA, HIPAA, and others.
“To err is human.”
No amount of training and adherence to practice procedures, rules, and regulations will prevent you and your team from making the occasional mistake. Defending yourself from billing errors proceedings or other regulatory actions can be financially devastating. It will likely cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars more than your malpractice policy may cover. One of the foundations of business ownership is having adequate insurance to protect you in tough times. Audit insurance, which is available through most malpractice insurance carriers, pays the defense costs, civil fines, and penalties due to billing errors proceedings, HIPAA proceedings, EMTALA proceedings, and Stark proceedings. It additionally provides coverage for unknown prior acts, a broad definition of billing errors, and proceedings brought by commercial payers or government entities.
Gathering Momentum
So, you’ve got things sorted out behind closed doors. Now it’s time to bloom by connecting with the public. Positive word of mouth from patients is priceless, but active marketing is central to getting the wider public’s attention and gaining financial traction for your business.
It can be intimidating to know where to start. Here’s a quick checklist to help make better connections:
• Don’t post online irregularly or rarely. Keep the content coming in one form or another, whether it’s blogs, social media posts, images, audio, or video.
• Do make anything you post valuable to your audience and not merely self-promotion.
• Leverage the social media tools of big platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to spotlight your business. Don’t forget Google My Business.
• Make yourself available to the public and always respond quickly and constructively to every piece of feedback, whether it’s positive or negative.
• Ask patients if they’d mind posting a review of your service rather than hoping they’ll mention you to others.
Thriving also means owning your own little piece of the chiropractic map by promoting your service on a selling point that goes beyond “just” compassionate care. That’s the very least a patient expects. How do you differ from the next practitioner? Is there a particular kind of patient who would especially benefit from your specific type of chiropractic service, or do you offer something for everyone?
Isolating those two aspects can help create a unique and powerfully focused approach that increases the chances of a blossoming practice, helping new practitioners make a name for themselves, or revitalizing flagging public awareness for more established clinics. Either way, you’ll get more eyes on your mission and keep yourself on everyone’s radar.
Maintaining Growth
As your practice continues to grow, it is important that you remain consistent with marketing and patient communication. One of the biggest mistakes many business owners make as they grow is to back off on the very things that helped them to achieve that growth. Continue to be present at community events and social media. Take the time to elevate your practice by investing in team training internally and externally. Keeping you and your team abreast of changes in health care, communication, technology, etc., will help you and your practice stand out from the crowd. It will also show your team how much you value them and help take your practice to the next level.
As I started a second business 14 years ago, I hired people with the skills I needed to get things done. Now, we hire people who fit the culture of our growing company and provide them with the resources to learn the skills they need to take us to the next level. We currently have a certified biller, certified coder, certified compliance officer, and more. We encourage outside education and provide tuition/course reimbursement for classes and certifications that wifi help to broaden their skills.
Over the years, the money I invested in my team has lowered costs and errors from employee turnover, but it also gave me something I didn’t expect — a happy, loyal team that takes ownership of the jobs they do and the company they represent.
Kristi Hudson is a certified professional compliance officer (CPCO). She serves as the Director of J9 Business Relationships for ChiroHealthUSA where she has helped to educate DCs and CAs on establishing simple and compliant financial policies. You can contact Kristi at 888-719-9990 or [email protected], or you can visit the ChiroHealthUSA website at www.chirohealthusa.com.
References
1. IBIS Worldwide. (2021, June 29). Chiropractors in the US-Market Size 2002-2027. Retrieved from IBIS Worldwide: https:// www.ibisworld.com industry-statistics market-size chiropractor s-united-states# :~: text The %2 Omarket%2 Osize %2C%20 measured%o20by, is%20%2418.5bn%20in%202022.
2. Patel, D. (2017, July 17). The Pros And Cons Of Outsourcing. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/d... the-pros-and-cons-of-outsourcing-and-the-effect-on-company-culture ?sh=625 7894a562d
