The
truth is that D.C.s with low self-esteem use outside factors as an excuse for
their low fees. It is essential to understand that your fees should only reflect
your inner self-worth. Ultimately, it will be your self-worth that will create
your net worth.How much are your adjustments worth? The answer to this vital question is determined by how much value and reverence you have for the life enhancing benefits of chiropractic care and by your self-image, self-worth and self-esteem.
This is totally consistent with the Be-Do-Have model that states that in order to have more, you must first be more. Raise your standards, raise your self-esteem and then raise your fees.
Most chiropractors have embarrassingly low fees or have not raised their fees in years. Allow me to share with you my rule regarding fees: unless 10 percent or more of your patients are complaining that your fees are too high, it is a positive indicator that they are not. For 99 percent of our profession, I have a certainty that 10 percent of your patients do not complain that your fees are too high.
Raise Your Fees
Therefore, it is time to raise your fees. If you feel any anxiety about asking for more and getting more for chiropractic care, answer this essential question: Are you more committed to your fears or to your dreams? Focus on creating more value and better service. Pay attention to the little details, because it is the little things that make the big things big.
It’s all in your head and all in your attitude. Be proud of your fee increase and know that you and chiropractic are worth more. Do not try to explain it away with a two-page letter to your patient documenting that you have not raised your fee in seven years, the increase in the cost of living and that postage stamps now cost 37 cents. Instead, use a simple and professional announcement that states, “As of January 1st, our adjustment fee will be $50. Thank you for your friendship, understanding and loyalty.”
Patient finances have radically changed over the years. Most chiropractors have forgotten that they work for their patient, as they actually believe that they now work for the insurance companies. The true doctor-patient relationship is being replaced by a business relationship, structured around cost containment and orchestrated by a faceless third-party that cares more about the bottom line than the patient’s well being.
The average D.C. has 19 visits per patient, while the average D.C. has been adjusted hundreds, if not thousands, of times. This is incongruent and does not serve the patient well. More disturbingly, when you hold on to a patient for an average of only 19 visits, you rob the patient, the profession and yourself from experiencing the miracles that chiropractic is famous for. This in turn continually weakens or diminishes your professional self-esteem.
A Fixed Fee Is The Answer
Unlimited Chiropractic Care At A Fixed Fee (UCCAFF) was created to revolutionize patient financial policies, making chiropractic available while preserving profitability. UCCAFF will help you resolve both the issues of increasing retention and of increasing your fees.
Practicing the outdated allopathic visit-by-visit model of payment will continually sabotage your efforts to improve your practice. The purpose of UCCAFF is long-term patient compliance. It is designed to increase retention and to focus the patient away from the treatment model and toward a quality-of-life model of health care.
It is a revolutionary and time-tested fee system that focuses on healing and not just symptoms by offering the patient one global fee for unlimited utilization. Practicing UCAFF will restore the true doctor-patient relationship and allow you to demonstrate your commitment to serve instead of your compulsion to just survive.
The concept of “One Global Fee” for unlimited utilization is commonplace in our society. You pay one global fee for a service like Internet access for unlimited utilization. You pay one global fee when you go to a theme park for unlimited utilization of their rides and shows. In health care, you pay one global fee for unlimited utilization with orthodontists and with obstetricians.
You even pay one global fee for unlimited utilization when you hire an attorney on a retainer. In every circumstance that you pay one global fee, utilization increases—which is exactly what we want in chiropractic.
I recognize that the concept of Unlimited Chiropractic Care At A Fixed Fee is a financial paradigm shift for doctors, just like chiropractic care is a paradigm shift for many patients.
The UCCAFF system is based on creating a long-term relationship with the patient based on trust and respect. It creates a non-insurance dependent model of patient finances so necessary in these changing times in health care. We chiropractors know better than anyone that life is one adjustment after another and yet chiropractors have been historically slow to adjust or adapt to changes in society. Remember that change is inevitable, but your growth is optional.
The Ultimate Retention Tool
By providing unlimited chiropractic care at a fixed fee, you are able to re-establish the true doctor-patient relationship because your focus will shift back to doing what is right for the patient instead of focusing simply on what is acceptable for the insurance carrier. UCCAFF is the health care financial plan of today and the ultimate retention tool. Increased retention is essential to properly and effectively serve the needs of the patient. Once the barrier between patient finances and patient care is removed with UCCAFF, you will be able to focus on what is most important—getting the patient well and keeping them well.
Getting patients well and improving the quality of their lives will improve your self-esteem. By now you see that this is a cybernetic loop that either works for you or works against you. Choose today to make it work for you. To quote Richard Carlson, author of Don’t Worry, Make Money, “You can either make money or you can make excuses. You cannot make both.”
Now is the time for you to raise your standards, to raise your expectations of yourself and to finally attract prosperity and abundance into your life. Now is the time for you to decide how much your adjustments are worth and to decide that they are priceless. Be more confident, more certain and more competent.
I have seen UCCAFF transform practices worldwide from stressful to successful, from poverty to prosperity. Please use the concepts, consciousness and ideas ethically and lovingly, and you’ll reach more people, make more money, and above all, help more families realize the miraculous benefits of chiropractic care.
Dr. Bob Hoffman is a 1978 graduate of New York Chiropractic College. In addition to a successful practice working with three full time associate D.C.s, Dr. Hoffman speaks worldwide and is the president of the ICA. Dr. Hoffman is also the president/COO of The Master’s Circle (masterscircle.com), a consulting group with its finger on progressive ideas like UCCAFF.