Grow in the New Year

Dr. R. A. Foxworth, FICC, MCS-P

Insurance enrollment periods ended last month across the country, leaving most people in a combined state of frustration and relief. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, has resulted in 86% of the country having at least some level of insurance. That sounds like good news, and in many cases, it is.

But when it comes to chiropractic, what that coverage often means is significant limitations on what private insurers are willing to pay. That means that in most cases, patients with limited or no chiropractic coverage under their insurance policies will become, essentially, cash patients fairly early on in their care.

Even for patients whose insurance policies cover chiropractic, the deductibles are often so outrageously and prohibitively high that they’ll never come close to meeting them. They, too, are basically cash patients. And then there’s the remaining 14% of Americans without health insurance at all. They’re definitely cash patients, too.

The bottom line? At some point, thanks to today’s healthcare environment, every patient becomes a cash patient, it’s just a matter of when. The question then becomes: how do we doctors comply with all the rules and regulations that affect how and what we charge and still give our patients affordable care?

Some DCs charge patients’ insurance companies more than they charge their cash patients, resulting in a “dual fee schedule”. If this is you, stop. It’s extraordinarily risky behavior, because it’s not only illegal in many states, but may be in violation of your provider agreements as well. Other docs try to work around the problem by offering time-of-service (TOS) discounts. These discounts are intended to reflect the saved costs of not having to bill and collect from patients, but in some cases, the doctors involved are discounting way MORE than their actual bookkeeping costs; also risky AND potentially illegal.

The answer to all this mess is actually quite simple: A Discount Medical Plan Organization (DMPO). ChiroHealthUSA is a network that works in conjunction with a discount medical plan. When you become one of our network providers, you can offer legal, compliant network discounts to your cash patients, those with limited benefits and even your federally insureds like Medicare, and never have a moment’s concern about illegal dual fee schedules again. There’s no cost to you to join with an affordable $49 fee for your patients, that not only covers their entire family, but is often recouped in their very first visit.

You can easily transition your patients from insurance to private pay by using ChiroHealthUSA’s capped fee for new and routine office visits, which keeps out-of-pocket expenses for your patients at or often below what they’d have to pay when using their insurance. There’s even a legal way for your insured patients with high deductibles to opt out of having to file with their insurance companies, so they can get the care they need at a price they can afford which allows them to begin care immediately, rather than waiting until that high deductible is met by some catastrophic event.

It’s ironic, isn’t it? More people are insured than ever before, but the nature of that coverage means there are also more cash patients than ever before. Do yourself and your patients a huge favor. Join ChiroHealthUSA and adopt a simple, compliant and profitable financial policy that’s not only easy to explain to patients, but gives you a way to practice with more peace of mind. 3,000 of your colleagues and over 325,000 patients think ChiroHealthUSA is great idea. Click here to find out why, and to learn how easy it is to have the practice you want and deserve.