If you’ve paid attention to the latest reports from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), you may already know that there’s somewhat of a “witch hunt” underway for chiropractors. The OIG has gone on record several years in a row saying that in its view, over 90% of chiropractic documentation is missing key elements or is in outright error. And they’ve charged CMS with fixing the problem. Translation: more audits.
Medicare sure seems to be complicated for a program that only pays for 1 service in our office. The federal agency will only pay for adjustments that can be considered active treatment, and therefore medically necessary (as opposed to clinically appropriate). So that means getting Medicare patients to pay for maintenance care, preventative care, and rehab has been next to impossible.
It’s easy to understand why. People generally only want whatever treatment their insurance covers, regardless of what we doctors might consider treatment that would help them get better, faster. Some doctors try to be generous and charge below market value for maintenance adjustments or rehab, but that’s risky business. We might consider it being kind, but Medicare considers it inducement. And it can get you fined and a whole lot worse.
You might be interested to know that when doctors become ChiroHealthUSA providers, their Medicare patients are willing to pay for exams and x-rays. Why? Because ChiroHealthUSA providers can make that clinically appropriate (but medically “unnecessary”) care affordable by giving their patients safe, legal, compliant discounts.
ChiroHealthUSA is a network that works with a Discount Medical Plan Organization (DMPO). When you join, you become part of that network, and like any network, you’re able to offer network discounts based on your actual fee schedule so you can offer discounts on things Medicare never, ever covers.
ChiroHealthUSA is easy to explain to your Medicare patients. There’s no cost to you, the doctor, to become a provider with a simple and affordable $49 annual fee per family for patients to join. That charge is easily recovered in the first visit.
Protect yourself from inducement violations, and give your Medicare patients an affordable way to pay for the care this active but vulnerable age group needs and deserves. Join ChiroHealthUSA and institute a simple, compliant and profitable financial policy. 3,000 of your colleagues and over 300,000 patients think we’re a great idea. Visit us at chirohealthusa.com/grow and chirohealthusa.com/know to view short videos on how easy it is to have the practice you want and deserve.
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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.