https://youtu.be/uyuWSDFSmrE

Show Notes:

Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey, what's going on Doc? Welcome back to episode number seven of the simplified integration podcast. Are you in a bad business model? Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and I agree. You see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated and quite frankly it's exhausting. Enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling. Well, I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years working with integrated practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more is true. Through a streamlined approach, I was able to create multiple successful seven-figure integrated clinics and now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast.

Speaker 1: (01:08)
You can look at this as a blessing or a curse. But chiropractors have such a wide scope of practice. There are chiropractors that just do chiropractic. There are some that specialize in scoliosis or pediatrics. I know chiropractors, all they do is focused on essential oils or regenerative medicine or neuropathy. Like there are so many different things we can do and that's a blessing and a curse. However, there's not a right or wrong to that, right? There are still some like old school chiropractor is like an old school way. I call an old school way of thinking is that all chiropractors are chiropractors and all they should do is adjust. Well, the reality of the matter is there a lot of different ways that you can help patients. Chiropractor's job is to serve and help their patients. So for example, if you have an overweight patient, would it be beneficial to the patient if you can help them with their weight loss?

Speaker 1: (01:52)
Absolutely. And why shouldn't it chiropractors do that? There can be there. I know chiropractors that are phenomenal at weight loss. Uh, can essential oils help somebody live a healthy lifestyle? For sure. We use those at home. I don't do that in practice, but there's no reason why chiropractors shouldn't or couldn't do that. So there is no like right or wrong on what chiropractors should or shouldn't do in my opinion. But there are within those categories, really poor business models. So there are three bad business models that I see over and over again in our profession. The first one is being too reliant on insurance. Now, if you have insurance reimbursement, great, but the problem is if you're, if you're relying on that to pay your overhead, to pay your bills, to make a living, that can go away overnight because you don't, you don't control insurance companies, you, you don't definitely don't control Medicare and you don't, you don't control what they cover and how much they cover.

Speaker 1: (02:40)
And this is somewhat old news and chiropractic. There are still some States where chiropractic insurance is really good, but if you live in, for example, I live in North Carolina, insurance reimbursement sucks. Like it's hard to make a good living off of insurance. And the problem is, again, we don't control that. Now one, one area of chiropractic, like one model that's really suffered tremendously as conventional integration. So five years ago, if you looked at a traditional integrated medic, a chiropractic office, medically car and chiropractic office, they're making a fortune, like they're getting paid insane amounts of money from insurance for all of these different therapies that, uh, that, uh, these offices were providing. So these are like trigger point injections and DME and ultrasound guided like all these different things that um, chiropractors were doing, an integrated clinics, however, that business model died, it's completely gone.

Speaker 1: (03:32)
Uh, they're like that reimbursed. So insurance companies kind of got wise to that business model and they completely wiped it out. So it's really hard. There are still some States and areas where it's still somewhat profitable, but that's like that's a dot. It's dying and dead on the vine. And so chiropractors that I've relied on that business model, I've really suffered and I've had to like do different things in their practice to, to stay afloat. And this is where sometimes you hear me talk about this notion of, of what I call reimbursement dumpster diving. So the problem is when you're relying on insurance to make a living and insurance cuts something out, then all of a sudden these doctors are scrambling to find different things that can add to their practice solely based on what insurance pays. And if you don't believe me, go to like a, like a one of the big integration companies go to one of their seminars, go to one of their conventions.

Speaker 1: (04:16)
All it is is like a dog and pony show of these different vendors that get onstage and say, Hey, try this product. Hey this reimburses X amount of money. Hey try this. And it's like you have to do that every year because all the stuff that insurance reimbursed for last year, it doesn't pay anymore. So it's like a vicious cycle of adding new things like chiropractors having to go into the dumpster to find what insurance will pay for this year. And so it really just, it's a very quick way to destroy your reputation and your business model. So that's like an old thing and I'm now what? I'm not, I'm not saying that insurance, all insurance is bad. The reality is this, if you live in a state where you get money for insurance, for adjustments or for rehab, use it, right? It's there. It's free money, but don't be dependent on it.

Speaker 1: (04:59)
So if that went away overnight, you should be able to shift your practice into a cash model to still offer the same services that help patients and also, um, uh, keep your business alive. So if you're relying a hundred percent on insurance, that is a bad, bad, bad business model. All right? So second bad business model is something that I call a trading time for money. You've probably heard of this concept before and this is where, uh, you're in an office and you can't delegate what you do to somebody else. And these are like your traditional like mom and pop offices. And here's the, here's the deal guys. I know some doctors that absolutely love being like a one or two man show. They love interacting with patients. Uh, they love being the only adjuster and like that's their jam. That's what they love to do.

Speaker 1: (05:43)
I'm not talking about you. Uh, if you love to do that, great. But the problem is the reality is that that that can be a really bad business model. The reason why is you can't grow and expand. So if you, if you really have a heart for helping people and serving your, why would you not want to serve more people and help more people and expand your influence and your scope and your ability to help people. Right? Like that's like, if you can help one Pete, one person, why not help a hundred people? And the problem I see with so many chiropractors is that they're like the, the multipurpose person in the office. They do the adjusting, they do their rehab, they do the consultations, they do their report of findings, they're handling the marketing, they're howling from the sales, they're the business owner. They do all the where all these different hats and they don't have like a structured way to delegate things to other people.

Speaker 1: (06:28)
Maybe you're the only one who can adjust the way. You can adjust by guarantee. I can find someone who can just almost as good as you can. There are other people in this world that can do case management just as good as you can or perhaps better. There are people that can do your exams and your marketing for you. So if you're in a position where you're doing all of it, it really limits your ability to expand your practice and also have some freedom outside of practice. So many chiropractors I know get burnt out because they're doing all this work and you're working so hard to help people into this huge, like servant's heart and passion for helping people. But they just beat themselves up because they're doing all the work. And I don't know about you, but I'd never like, I never wanted to be that doctor.

Speaker 1: (07:07)
So if you're, so if you're, if you find yourself in a position where you're just trading your valuable time to do something else, that business model doesn't make sense, especially if you want to grow and expand. Um, and so there, uh, yeah, and there are a lot of examples that I see in the profession, but if you look at doctors who have figured out a way to get out of that and they are good at training and delegating and creating systems, you'll find doctors that not only are very successful, but they're helping a lot of people and they also have a life outside of practice. So trading time for money, not the best business model in my opinion. Third thing. So we have number one, relying on insurance. Second problem is trading time for money. And the third one is, uh, uh, latch, gone to fads and health.

Speaker 1: (07:51)
I don't know of any other profession that has so many health fads than the healthcare profession. And especially in chiropractic, again, it's a blessing and a curse. We can do so many different things, but so often I see doctors latching onto things just because it's hot and because it's a fad, but it doesn't necessarily have a lot of benefit to the patient. Now, there are all kinds of like categories and subcategories of this. I'll give you an example. Um, weight loss, especially like nutrition and weight loss is absolutely a good thing to offer patients. I always like, I think chiropractors should teach patients about nutrition and how to eat well and how to maintain a healthy weight. But within that weight loss category is you have all kinds of crazy ass feds that doctors latch onto. Not because it helps the patient, but, but because you can collect money for it, right?

Speaker 1: (08:41)
Like they're, and I don't want to name names and like what those different fads are, but you, you know, what they are is doctors like, Ooh, I can make 10,000 bucks a month or 20,000 bucks a month and all I have to do is implement this one thing and it'll run itself and, and, and you know, it's BS, right? But sometimes doctors are so like desperate to make money and desperate to like, like automate their practice and to become successful that they're skipping the fact that this is a, a BS fad. It's not going to help the patient in any way, shape or form. It's just a money. It's a moneymaking scheme. So weight loss is like that. I also see this in regenerative medicine and I get this comment a lot like, Oh, you just get into regenerative medicine cause you want to make a lot of money.

Speaker 1: (09:20)
Yeah, I want to make a lot of money and yes, you can do that in regenerative medicine, but there's also a way to serve your patients without making it a sleazy fad. Right, and regenerative medicine is not going to go away. It's being adopted more and more and more, not just in chiropractic but across the medical board worldwide. So it's not a fad, but it can be a fed and how you present it to your patients. If you're presenting it as like a cure all fix-all solution to joint pain, it's you're not going to last. You're going to become a fed because people are going to figure that out in your community. However, if you're, if you're offering it in a way that makes sense and is logical and truthful, ethical to a patient, then you have a business model that sustains itself. And if right now it's mainly a cash service, but if insurance decides to cover it at some point down the road, great.

Speaker 1: (10:05)
You get insurance reimbursement for regenerative medicine. Um, neuropathy can be the same way, right? You have a, I know a lot of doctors who focus on neuropathy. There is a right and a wrong way to do neuropathy. There are systems that really help patients. Some are reimbursed by insurance, some are cash services, some offer really great ways to automate your practice. So it helps the doctor, it helps the practice and it, it's not a fad, it's not going away. There's always going to be people that need help with neuropathy and their joints and weight loss. So just make sure that you're not latching onto a fad because if you are, it's gonna bite you in the assets some point down the road and you're gonna pay for it. So, uh, those, uh, these are the three top bad business models I see in chiropractic. Number one, reliance on insuring or overreliance on an insurance.

Speaker 1: (10:50)
Number two is that you're trading your valuable time for your money. So being the one stop shop or mom and pop style office. And then number three, latching onto fads that are going to go away pretty quickly. So I hope you found this beneficial. Great to have you on here, doc. I look forward to seeing you on the next podcast episode. Take care. Have an awesome day. Bye. Hey, innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. Fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@simplifiedintegration.com that's info@simplifiedintegration.com.