Conquering Practice Fear

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

Valentine’s Day just passed, and this year, my heart is a little heavy. Between ICD-10 bearing down on us like a freight train, increasing OIG scrutiny, fear of audits and records requests, confusion about active vs maintenance treatment, and staggering amounts of paperwork, both electronic and otherwise, far too many DCs I meet have fallen, even if only a little bit, out of love with their practices. The enthusiasm, optimism, and full heart with which they graduated and entered the profession have been dulled by fear, overwhelming dread, and confusion.

Many DCs just want someone to “fix it,” whatever “it” is to them, so they can just get back to seeing patients and get home to their families at a reasonable hour.

Many colleagues I talk to express a vague sense of impending doom, as if there’s something or someone out there (the OIG, a third-party private carrier making just a few too many records requests for comfort) that will inevitably make them take their practice down a level or two, or put a significant dent in their income.  I guess they think lowering their volume lowers their risk. Even more troubling are the doctors I meet who seem oblivious to any threats whatsoever unknowingly putting themselves at significant risk by falling into “outlier” coding patterns, turning in incomplete documentation or documentation that doesn’t support medical necessity, and offering discounts that could constitute having an illegal dual fee schedule or triggering and inducement violation.

In the rock-paper-scissors game, paper (admittedly a pretty fragile substance) beats rock. And in real life, knowledge and love conquer fear. When we know what we don’t know, we can take steps to educate ourselves and our team members. We can shine light into the dark places in our practices where we’ve been unwilling to probe out of fear of what we’ll find there. And when we avail ourselves of good solid resources to protect our businesses, and ourselves, there’s space to fall back in love with our practices and our profession again.

I love chiropractic, and I want to help chiropractors love what they do. That’s why I founded ChiroHealthUSA. ChiroHealthUSA is a Network that works in conjunction with a Discount Medical Plan Organization (DMPO.)  ChiroHealthUSA gives chiropractors the means to offer safe, legal discounts to financially challenged patients based on their practice’s actual fee schedule. That means your members don’t have to worry about dual fee schedules, inducements, and the resulting risk of being audited that comes with them.

There is no cost to the doctor, and the affordable $49 fee per patient family per year is easily recovered on the patient’s first visit. ChiroHealthUSA providers also have access to the best and brightest minds in the profession on issues such as reimbursement, documentation, coding, patient finances, staff scripting and training, and billing and collections. We provide more than enough resources to help doctors conquer fear with knowledge and regain their passion for our profession.

We offer a free on-demand webinar that explains the benefits of becoming a ChiroHealthUSA provider as well as how to easily they can offer membership to patients. Invite your members to register for one of our webinars..