As Chiropractors, we are called to alleviate pain and restore the body’s performance through functional medical care. We mitigate pain through these means to maximize patient success and long-term health and minimize the need for any invasive procedures.
However, with the challenges chiropractors face in today’s demanding marketplace, the pursuit to relieve pain continues to distance itself. This is especially true as the window to chiropractic success seems to be narrowing with continuing regulations and only 10% of U.S. citizens utilizing chiropractic care.
These facts pose many questions to the future:
What does the future hold for chiropractors? Will chiropractic still exist in the next 20 years? Will future generations have access to chiropractic care?
These questions will continue to linger, and many will wonder how to ensure chiropractic skills not only continues to be practiced but thrives. You are faced with two options when betting on the “tomorrow” of chiropractic care: continue to survive with the current chiropractic model or maximize success with medical integration.
A Brief Timeline
In 1895, Daniel David Palmer founded chiropractic. He believed the practice of bone alignment and manipulation would pacify pain and cure most diseases the human body suffers from.
Fast forward to the 1980s, chiropractors enjoyed the perks the practice offered through favorable health insurance reimbursements. However, over the succeeding decades, insurers tightened restrictions and limited treatment options.
Since Daniel Palmer founded chiropractic, only about 1 in 10 people have utilized this form of health care. Functional-based approaches to health care continue to clash with the pharmaceutical industry and insurers are constantly considering their bottom line in cutting treatment corners…
Meaning the future of chiropractic may be at stake.
Avoiding a Crash from Cash
Going cash-only is a common approach that many chiropractors have used. While the benefit is a healthy financial yield, cash-only practices are at the mercy of the local, and sometimes fragile, economy, changing demographics, increased competition and other components in the marketplace.
Chiropractic patient loyalists will continue to be the lifeblood of cash practices. And though a thriving cash practice can offer instant gratification, history shows this method is not fruitful for the long game.
This is because the philosophy of chiropractic- providing restorative and cure-based treatments as opposed to symptom relief- compel chiropractors to generate through market outreaches and bring in a steady flow of new patients. With this being said, inflow must exceed outflow.
So, the question remains: How do chiropractors and industry leaders spread the word that chiropractic is the most cost-effective option, produces far better health patient outcomes and provides treatment that is superior function based?
It Takes a Village
Today, patients are more informed and focused on receiving broader and more comprehensive alternatives to conventional medicine. The solution for these patients is medically integrated practices. With this model, you are provided a profound fix to a variety of problems facing American health care and individual practices.
Within a medically integrated clinic, physicians examine patients, and during collaboration with chiropractors and any other healthcare practitioner, determine the best treatment plans. These plans may include alignment, manipulation, physical therapy, massage or any other alternative treatments.
The integrated model facilitates chiropractors and medical doctors to deliver insurance-covered and hyper-focused care to a growing base of patients who wouldn’t otherwise seek chiropractic treatment. It also allows for medical doctors to seek a new solution to pain – rather than have drugs as the first choice, patients are given the opportunity to heal the body rather than mask the ailment.
Medical integration is the wave and promise of the future- and the answer to a question you may not have had.
About Advanced Medical Integration
AMI has 20 years of medical practice consulting experience, personal guidance, and oversight supporting practices in overcoming their local competitors. They support medical practices in scaling their business through integration and expansion. Most importantly, AMI’s systems, resources, and strategy deliver better patient outcomes without the use of opioids and unnecessary surgeries.
AMI teaches healthcare practice owners how to not only survive, but to thrive throughout the next decade by aligning the services of their clinics with those that are most beneficial for the patient. In addition to exceptional patient outcomes, the processes and systems of practices are philosophically sound, fully compliant, and profitable for the practice.
