Dr. R. A. Foxworth, FICC, MCS-P
October is National Chiropractic Health Month (NCHM), and the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) is sounding the rallying cry to help healthcare consumers “understand that chiropractic services are an important first line of defense against pain.”
It’s a worthy message to get behind, but you shouldn’t let your education outreach stop there. The fact is that even when patients get that chiropractic is a great way to manage pain and improve overall health, they still may not know how to pay for it.
That’s truer than ever by the fourth quarter, when many patients’ health insurance benefits have run out for the year. While the Affordable Care Act established essential health benefits, chiropractic is covered as it should be in many of the plans. Insurers can, and do, limit the number of visits per year, even when services are covered. Even worse, many services remain non-covered, especially by Medicare. And that’s a problem, because most patients believe that if their insurance company won’t pay, they can’t afford chiropractic care. They’ve seen the “billed amounts” on their insurer’s Explanation of Benefits. Understandably, they assume that this is what they’d have to pay out of pocket, too.
You’ve probably experienced it time and time again: when insurance benefits run out, patients are more likely to run out the door.
What if you could tell your patients that they could pay close to the same amount as their co-pay or less, even after their insurance benefits are maxed out? Making it possible to provide affordable care that keeps patients coming back is the key impetus behind ChiroHealthUSA, a provider-owned network that allows providers to charge patients affordable fees, sometimes even less than their insurance co-pays, all year long—even after they’ve exhausted their insurance benefits. Designed with doctors in mind, our network model works in conjunction with a Discount Medical Plan Organization (DMPO) so doctors can offer legal, network-based discounts to not just the under-insured, but also to cash and “out of network” patients who become members. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg! You can also help keep care affordable for families and even those with high-deductibles.
It’s easy for you to join as a provider and there’s no cost to you or your practice. ChiroHealthUSA is easy to explain to your patients. Patients will quickly understand how paying an annual membership fee of $49 for ChiroHealthUSA entitles them to network discounts on their services. It’s a win for them, because the cost of their membership is usually more than made up in the very first visit. And it’s a win for you, because you have a way to offer legal discounts to patients in need. The network approach to discounts reduces the risks of complaints, audits, compliance and OIG violations related to inducements, improper down-coding, dual fee schedules, and potentially inappropriate time-of-service discounts.
Click here to find out more about how becoming a ChiroHealthUSA provider allows you to offer legal discounts to help your patients pay for the care they need and deserve. Don’t wait. You can save a sagging fourth quarter, and gear up to for a great 2017.
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Why is the Discount Challenge prize amount $15,024? Because that is the average “per-occurrence” fine for Medicare inducements. That’s not $15,024 per patient, that’s not per provider, that’s PER VISIT. Stinks, doesn’t it? To us, the prize amount is worth the investment if we can help our profession better understand proper discounting.