HAPPY GIVING THANKS.

As I sit here contemplating this particular Thanksgiving week with all the craziness in the world AND in America, I realize there is much for ME to give thanks.

I was born a free man in the United States of America, a nation maligned by many who take so much for granted. For all that America has been blamed, it still has done more to improve the life of hundreds of millions of people around the World. It is STILL the place where the World seeks refuge and opportunity.
I was born a Southerner. As such, I was taught manners, respect for women, strength of character, duty, honor, to protect the weak and to love my country.

I am thankful for the United States military. Military service gave a young man discipline and direction when it was much needed. It also allowed me to earn a college education and the chance to be more than what my past had prepared me.

I have been blessed to have finally realized my calling and purpose of serving God by serving my fellow man as a chiropractor focused on freeing people’s locked potential for expressing life, health, happiness and prosperity. I get to help babies, kids, families and individuals in all walks of life. It’s also a great avenue for sharing the message of a bigger Design for people’s life and potential. I’m a crazy chiropractor and that is awesome!

I have two great kids who are smart, productive and who love their parents. They understand their potential and want to make the World a better place in their own ways.

Finally, I’m grateful to have been pulled from a morass of despair and hopelessness by a Loving God who set me free to be me. I have found in the darkest of times that His Grace is sufficient and gives me a peace in the midst of any storm.

Oh yeah. I am grateful for the many friends I have who tolerate my sometimes weird sense of humor, my Conservative political philosophy.

HAPPY GIVING THANKS!

The Inspired Chiropractic College

The inspired chiropractic college of the future will provide to its students, recruits and profession the following:

• Graduates that understand and embrace the history and philosophy of Chiropractic
• Graduates that understand WHAT a vertebral subluxation is and know WHERE it is, HOW, WHEN (and when NOT) to adjust it and WHY
• Graduates that are the very best adjusters in the profession
• Graduates that understand the subtleties of business and are ready to either start their own practice or step into another’s with minimum training required
• Graduates that fully understand the CURRENT state of the business environment they will encounter and are able to rationally decide to practice in one or several models, including all cash, third party reimbursement, Personal Injury/Worker’s Comp, etc.
• A quality education that reverses the tide of ever-increasing tuition costs for its students.
• Employ teaching and learning methods that ensure the greatest results for its students at the least cost.
• Strive for ZERO student loan defaults among its graduates
• Aggressively work to create a vibrant market for Chiropractic care (and it’s graduates) in both their local area and nationally.
• Provide mentoring to EVERY student throughout their entire Chiropractic program.
• Provide a special opportunity for military Veterans
• Aggressively pursue research on Principled Chiropractic care though its own clinics, alumni and in partnership with major research institutes.
• Be as concerned about the success of its graduates as it is in the success of its recruiting of new students.
• Set and achieve standards for post graduate success that make the entire profess better
• Inspire its recruits, graduates, profession and community through its pursuit of excellence and commitment to the profession and the Principles that brought it into existence.

This profession is starving for inspired leadership and inspired chiropractors.  The school that fills this void could literally change the course of the profession

Chiropractor speaks at National Youth Leadership Forum-Medicine

I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion at the National Youth Leadership Forum – Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta recently.  Every year, Emory hosts the NYLF-Medicine for high school seniors considering a career in Medicine/healthcare.

This is my 10th year of participating in the program.  In the past, each participating practitioner has spoken to separate breakout groups about their own specialty.  This year, the format changed somewhat so that the students could compare and contrast the various specialties.  It was really quite interesting.

The panel on which I participated included three MDs, an internist, a neurosurgeon, a family physician and a chiropractor.  Almost all of us had similar stories on how we ended up in healthcare, essentially that we all had a passion to serve and to help people.  yet, we all ended up in our own specialty for different reasons.

One of the things that struck me was how similar, yet how different we all practiced.  It was quite amazing at how my and the family physician’s practices paralleled.   Like me, he sees families from newborns to grandparents, even great grandparents just like me.  He serves as a team physician for a local high school athletic program, just as I have served as team chiropractor.  While the specialists focus on their specialties, the GP and I see folks with a variety of conditions sometimes BEFORE and sometimes AFTER having been diagnosed with a condition that would normally require a specialist’s intervention.

It was also very interesting how attuned to business considerations these future doctors were.  They seemed to understand the high cost of becoming a doctor and the changing economic environment facing health care providers in today’s market.

One of the most interesting questions for the panel was “What are the pros and cons of what you do?”  Not too surprisingly, every respondent had virtually the same answer, “I love what I do.  I get to help people.  What I do is very rewarding.  ?But, the downside is that you need to know that if you’re going to be successful, you’re going to need to work your butt off AND learn how to be successful business owner at the same time.”

I’ll write more later.  But suffice to say, that I always enjoy my time with the NYLF and am always gratified at the number of young people interested in Chiropractic as a career path.

Workers Compensation, Your Company & Unlimited Chiropractic Care

I have NEVER liked Workers Compensation as a chiropractor or a business owner.  However, I do realize that workplace injuries do happen and there should be some form of compensation for medical bills and income lost due to injuries caused simply by the nature of the job.  Anything that sets up an adversarial relationship between employee and employer can never be a good thing.

As a chiropractor, the concept of being a Workers Compensation provider has become extremely repugnant.  Granted, lots of folks do hurt their backs while at work and chiropractic care CAN help them recover and get back to work.  However, as has become the case with most forms of third party reimbursement, Workers Compensation has become a source of easy money for many in my profession.  It’s also created an environment that has brought some ill-repute to chiropractic.  Even though the cost of chiropractic care is well below the cost of back surgery and extensive physical therapy and rehab, it has gotten to the point where many states are making it difficult for chiropractors to even participate in Workers Compensation programs.

While chiropractors on one end of the spectrum have milked the third party cow just about dry, there is another group of chiropractors that companies ought to consider as part of its benefits and risk management team.  These chiropractors offer what has become known as chiropractic membership practices.  A chiropractic membership practice provides unlimited chiropractic care at a fixed fee usually over a specific period of time, typically for a year.  The program is designed for lifetime wellness care, though.

The membership practitioner works from a performance perspective.  Their objective is simply to take stress off the nervous system so folks can move toward their greatest potential at work, at home and at life in general.  When this happens, people are more rested, alert and less stressed.  What this means at work less time missed from work due to illness, injury or family trips to the medical doctor.  What this means to the employer is fewer Workers Com claims, fewer health insurance claims, improved morale and more productivity.  And, we all know that fewer Workers Comp and health insurance claims means lower premiums and eventually a better bottom line.

In my next blog, I’ll show you ways your company can use a chiropractic membership practice for your company and employees.

Why taxpayers should be PISSED OFF about Chiropractic education.

I try not to use coarse language in my writings.  And, there are just some words I won’t use.  Period.  But, as a taxpayer and chiropractor who loves what I do and why I do it, I’m simply pissed off at chiropractic education.  And, you should be, too!

Most Americans perception of chiropractors as drugless, non-surgical providers of relief from back pain.  And while chiropractic is definitely MUCH more than a non-Medical alternative to dealing with neuromuscular problems, we’ll just work with what the general public thinks we are, for now.  The one thing the virtually everyone even slightly familiar with the term “chiropractic” is that it deals with the spine…and is drugless and non-surgical.

Another thing the American public is generally aware of is that chiropractors (as a group) have a terrible self-image and often claim that “we’re REAL doctors, too!”   And, this Napoleon Complex permeates almost every aspect of my profession.  Worst of all, in the education of new chiropractors.

What the American public is probably NOT aware of is that the average chiropractic student graduates with over $200,000 in student loan debt AND that chiropractors default on student loans more than ALL other health professions COMBINED.  One of the reasons for this incredible default rate is that  the AVERAGE has an annual income of less than $100,000.  That just means that the American taxpayer is typically on the hook for  over a hundred grand for every chiropractic student that enters practice.

One of the reasons for all this is that chiropractic education is ruled by ONE accrediting agency who (in the absence of competition) requires that every chiropractic student learn more about Medicine than chiropractic.  As a result, new chiropractors can barely adjust, much less know what to adjust and not adjust and why!  And, the Medical education they receive they can’t legally use in most states in which they could practice.

As I stated in the beginning of this article, as an American taxpayer I’m really pissed off that my tax dollars are being wasted on teaching Medicine to chiropractic students.  I would every taxpayer who is also bothered by this to contact their Congressman and Senators and demand that the Department of Education pull in the reins on the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) and take a serious look at how we are funding chiropractic education.  The only folks benefiting from the fiasco known as chiropractic education are those institutions who benefit from heavy student loan subsidies and those practitioners billing for services that could be done better by other professionals.

It’s time to slow down the train wreck also known as chiropractic education.

Are you an acorn or an oak tree?

Every three months, I attend a gathering of several hundred of my chiropractic friends to help us stay focused on our mission to help improve the lives of as many people as we possibly can.  Since I’ve been doing this for over twenty years, you can imagine that it’s both enjoyable and inspiring.  The world can wear you down and drag you down if you let it.  Knowing that what we do as “DE chiropractors” can have profound effects on people’s lives way beyond back pain should be enough to keep you going.  But, it can be tough.

Anyway, at a recent DE meeting a friend from Canada used a metaphor that has so many implications that I simply had to share the message.  In a meeting with a new client, my friend held up an acorn and asked “What do you see?”  Obviously, the answer was “An acorn, of course.  Why?”  My friend’s response was “I see an oak tree, a forest of oak trees, a home and furniture and tools all built from the wood of the oak tree.  I see endless possibilities.”  Wow!  What a concept!

My first thoughts were from my perspective as a chiropractor that a person’s health could be fantastic without interference in how their body is designed to work.  Even further, that just as their health could improve, so could their vision of their own life, world and opportunities.

How do you see yourself?  Is it as a single little acorn amongst billions of other seemingly meaningless other acorns or as a potential mighty oak tree providing shade, comfort and opportunities for yourself and countless others.  You were Designed for greatness but delivered as a tiny seed.  You really need just a few things to reach the potential of your Design.  You need to SEE your own potential.  You need to be firmly planted in rich soil.  You need no interference in pursuing that potential.  And finally, you need to actively pursue that potential not necessarily knowing how great you can be but always moving toward your greatness.

Think of the lowly little squirrel.  We all know the squirrel scurries around burying acorns throughout the forest.  ?Does he do this just to be hoarding food for the winter?  Or is he investing in his (and others’) by spreading his own vision of oak trees and forests?

 

In all you do, whether it’s losing weight, exercising more, finding a good DE chiropractor, reading more, investing more wisely or creating meaningful relationships pursue your potential.  See your bigger picture.  Plant forests.  Most of all, do it daily in every aspect of your life.

Holy Crap! So that’s what $69 a month can do!

I’m a chiropractor.  I’m “cheap”.  I charge $69 a month for “unlimited care”.  Some of my chiropractor friends think I’m crazy.  And, some of my chiropractic non-friends accuse me of cheapening my profession and even breaking the law.  Consumers sometime wonder “what’s the catch?”  But, the folks that like how they feel from getting adjusted on a regular basis LOVE me.  Some think I’m a “marketing genius”.  I like to think they’re pretty bright, too.

Let’s take a look and see who is right, me or my detractors.  I know I’m right.  I just feel the need to give my detractors a crack at being right.

When I first started getting adjusted 22 years ago, I had health insurance and gladly used it to pay for my care.  But, it wasn’t long after that that I became self-employed and no longer had a third party paying for my adjustments.  So, I did what any intelligent, red-blooded American man would do, I married my chiropractor and have not had to pay for my adjustments since!

After seeing and experiencing the wondrous benefits of getting checked by a chiropractor on a regular basis (and seeing it work on my own kids) I decided to become a chiropractor.  The joy and miracles I’ve experienced as a result of that decision are sometimes difficult for me to express in words.  My kids are healthy, happy and strong and have never worried about sickness or disease.  Neither have had a single vaccination (well, until my son entered the Army) nor dealt with chronic or infectious disease as a result.  And, I’ve not even taken an aspirin for the problem that led me to get adjusted in the first place.

Early in my own chiropractic career, I decided that I wanted to make this thing afforded and accessible to virtually everyone.  You see, I’m what’s called a DE chiropractor.  We understand that the world would be a better place if EVERY family could realize the benefits from chiropractic that my family has.  Some of my early mentors, including Drs Bob Sottile, Jim Sigafoose, Sid Williams and Richard Santo always posed the challenge “Make your care affordable and see lots of people”.  That was a formula that I could understand and embrace.

So, that’s what I did.  Like I said earlier, we charge a low monthly membership fee of $69.  It’s a little more for a couple and a family.  My thinking was not necessarily to make it “cheap” but to have a fee that someone would be willing to pay every month for the rest of their life.  In my case, if I had been paying just $69 a month, I would have paid over $18,ooo!  EIGHTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!  What if I had a hundred clients doing that or two hundred, three or five?  Do the math!

I wonder how we could transform the chiropractic profession from a bunch of insurance chasing back crackers to an army of folks helping families live fuller, happier drug-free lives?  What a wonderful place America (and the World) would be if we could help get millions fo families off drugs and on life!  I’m thinking $69 a month just might change the World!

Chiropractic and the Apple iPad

My friend, Pete Kane, is a social media consultant helping businesses grow and prosper by expanding their presence through social media.  Pete is a great guy.  He’s been a career salesman and has been quite successful.  But like me, Pete has a short attention span (some people call it ADD) that sometimes limits his productivity.  He’s tried the planners, lists and almost every organizing scheme you can think of.  And yes, despite my objections, he’s used some of the popular medications.

But, Pete seems to have stumbled onto a miracle cure for his “ADD” while improving his productivity “at least a hundred fold” as he says.  Pete recently got an Apple iPad.  Not being an Apple user (yet) I’m not sure exactly how this new computing device has helped him so much so fast.  Pete will tell you that the training package he bought with his iPad (from PeachMac in Marietta, GA) has opened new vistas that he had never considered before.  He says that now, he no longer has to close a sale because it just happens.

As Pete is raving about his newfound productivity, I’m reminded of what chiropractic really does for people.  I know.  I know.  You think it’s for back pain.  But, what chiropractic really does is take stress off your nervous system so that you and your body are more aware of better ways to live, work and function.  And as you learn how to listen to all the new feedback you get from your body as a result of de-stressing your nervous system, your productivity and health begin to compound to the point that it takes on a whole new meaning.

Every now and then a new invention or discovery comes along that enables tremendous leaps for Mankind.  For me, chiropractic is one of those discoveries.  For Pete, it’s the iPad.

Dire Warning to Chiropractic Students!

It’s about time somebody got real with chiropractic students.  The cost of chiropractic education has skyrocketed over the last two decades while the quality and scope of that education has declined significantly. The likelihood of you being successful in practice has been severely diminished BECAUSE of your education.

Graduating chiropractors now leave school with student loan debt in excess of $200,000 while most new graduates don’t even understand the history and basic principles of their profession.  In fact, many graduate not even believing in the merits of chiropractic care.  By the time many have graduated, they’ve applied more physical therapy modalities than they have chiropractic adjustments.  Some are even afraid to adjust the one area that EVERY person should have checked on EVERY chiropractic visit, the upper cervical spine.

This current model of chiropractic education is borne out of the Napoleonic Complex of many in the profession and fueled by “insurance parity” gained in the 60’s and 70’s.  On one hand, you had those chiropractors of the “We’re real doctors, too!” mindset trying to gain equal status with MDs.  On the other, was the group that wanted to broaden the profession’s scope of practice to enable chiropractors to be able to bill for more services in the loose (at the time) third-party reimbursement environment.  As time passed, those groups gained power in the profession and influenced the education to a purely mechanistic model of practice while assaulting those schools that dared offer a choice to the aspiring chiropractic student.

Those chiropractors graduating today will encounter a market totally different that the one that existed when they entered chiropractic school.  third-party reimbursement for chiropractic services has all but vanished.  What is there is so far out of reach that chiropractors must get very creative in their billing practices to access any of those monies.  That practice alone has tarnished the image of the profession even more.  The realities of the market are that “health” insurance is almost too expensive to buy and too selective to use with extremely high deductibles and copays.  And on top of it all, the profession now has the highest student loan default rate of any of the health professions.

Oddly, there’s a branch of the profession that appears to be doing well and making a remarkable resurgence even in the face of massive student loans and the loss of third-party reimbursement.  That end of the profession that still adheres to the founding principles of the profession seem to be thriving.  Their offices are filling with people seeking a different approach than the allopathic, therapeutic approach to mere symptom relief to the vitalistic approach of locating and correcting vertebral subluxation, the ONLY thing that ONLY chiropractors (well most chiropractors, anyway) are specifically trained to do.

Faced with the disappearance of third-party pay and the reality of massive student loan debt, the chiropractor of the future will have even FEWER options for practice.  Graduates could get a job as an associate for an already successful practitioner,  get a job as a  public school science teacher or start their own practice.  Few existing practitioners will pay a graduating chiropractor what their teachers have told them they’re worth.  A degree and a license adds nothing to your worth, only to your opportunity.  Teaching public school might offer some benefits and job security.  But even that is questionable in this economic environment.

The only real choice for new chiropractors for success in making a decent living and ever paying off their student loans is to open and operate a high volume, low overhead, cash practice based on those principles on which the chiropractic profession was originally founded.  As I see it, there are simply no other alternatives.

What would this kind of practice look like?  Fees would be lower because chiropractors would now be competing for consumers’ disposable income (which they really always have) instead of getting on insurance companies preferred provider lists.  Care plans would either need to be compact and specific AND understandable OR variation of unlimited care plans which allow the greatest flexibility for both the customer and the chiropractor.  Both alternatives allow the consumer to get the most care at the lowest total cost possible.  The latter approach would enable the new chiropractor to build their volume and income as quickly as possible while providing a long-term stable and predictable  income.

Chiropractic’s educational hierarchy has let both its customer base (students and graduates) down, but has also endangered both the chiropractic profession and the American taxpayer who underwrites all those student loans.  And in the end, will cause the closing of several chiropractic schools because of the lack of focus on chiropracTIC principles and practices.

Dollar Tree and The Membership Practice

My daughter and I love the Dollar Tree.  It’s amazing how many things you can buy there for $1.  You can get tools, batteries, food, cleaning products, toys, holiday decorations, gift wrap, etc.  It’s ridiculous.  As an economist and former banker, I’m also amazed that there’s a business that there’s enough profit margin on $1 items to pay rent for a retail location, salaries and utilities and STILL make a profit significant enough to make it a worthy investment.

But, I LOVE the concept.  It’s simple.  It’s clear what they do.  It’s easy to get, find what you want and get out.  That’s the premise of The Membership Practice: Great chiropractic adjustments available in a hassle free, affordable manner so that virtually anyone can afford to feel better, work better and live better ALL THE TIME!

Dollar Tree and The Membership Practice is NOT about cheap.  It’s a business model that respects the consumer’s (your) time and resources while ensuring a reasonable profit on each visit.  This mode of practice is designed to attract LOTS of dedicated, long-term clients that ensures an excellent income on a low overhead, low stress practice for the chiropractor.

Whether you’re looking for a chiropractor or a chiropractor looking for a simpler way to practice, think about The Membership Practice.