Continuation from Part 1: Discover How I Created Financial Success as a Doctor of Chiropractic
I was living my “dream” of being a New York Hospital Chiropractor. I have been passionate about uplifting the awareness and respect of Chiropractic my whole career and to finally have the opportunity to improve the public, and the Medical perception of our beloved profession in a highly regarded New York hospital was my dream for 27 years. They said they vetted me for TWO YEARS before inviting me to be on staff. At the age of 53 I was finally being asked to join their team. Dreams can come true. That old saying was correct: “The harder you work, the luckier you get!” I was the first Chiropractor to be asked to join the hospital staff since they opened their doors in 1924. I was going to be a successful pioneer.
Who knew my “dream” would be so short-lived? Within a few short years, my dream turned into a nightmare, a financial nightmare.
After integrating with departments and doctors for several years as the lone D.C. in this hospital, the unthinkable happened. One day the referrals from almost every one of my referring hospital doctors stopped. There were zero referrals (NONE!) from the majority of the hospital docs. Coincidentally, they just happened to be part of the same large medical group. I asked my friend and best referrer, the head of Pain Management, what was going on and he mentioned a “memo” that the whole group (400 of them) received stating there were to be no more referrals out of their group. Musculoskeletal issues were to be handled in P.T., pain management, ortho, neuro and physiatry and referrals to practitioners “outside of the group” were now “discouraged”. (“Discouraged” is defined in a New York hospital as an act that might cause termination of employment.) One (illegal?) memo and my dream changed forever. (Sidenote: 2 weeks later the existence of that memo was denied. So much for my M.D. “friends”!)
As the M.D. referrals slowed and stopped, the insurance companies had a plan of their own for me (and so many of you!) As an “in-network” D.C., my income began to shrink. I won’t bother belaboring this point. When practicing in-network as a sole proprietor, the power balance did not lean in my direction. When their decision was to pay less per visit, pay less frequently, and change the game at their whim, it started to get ugly. My reimbursements went down, my referrals went down and my stress level went up in a perfect inverse proportion. I was in trouble. I needed more income, another revenue stream, and I needed it as soon as possible.
Now here’s where the rubber met the road and I had to vet revenue streams that would be accepted by my patients, my hospital, and my conscience. As a very research-oriented (skeptical) New York Chiro I knew I needed a list of the different characteristics that my new revenue stream must possess. I found several lists of essential criteria that made sense to me so I listed the necessary criteria that were on multiple lists as well as the ones that were not negotiable for me. This is where my paradigm shift began. I knew what to look for and I might have even already found it!
Here is the list of 8 questions that had to be asked by me, and answered for me, before I was willing to risk my patient’s health/well-being, my ethics, my future, my reputation and my livelihood in that hospital that I worked so long to be allowed into;
1. Will my patients need or want it?
2. Has the product or company been around for at least 5 years and well capitalized?
3. Is this new product or service simply a trend or a fad?
4. Can income be generated right away?
5. Is the person or company who is introducing me to this new product or service committed to my patient’s results and to my success?
6. Can I add this new product or service without devaluing my primary passion: Chiropractic Service?
7. Will this product or service IMPROVE MY PATIENT’S OUTCOMES?
8. Does the company that represents this product or service have the ETHICS, PRINCIPLES, and CORPORATE CULTURE that match mine and that I would be proud to share with my patients?
If any of the above questions could not be answered in a positive way, I could not expose that particular product/service to my patients, lest I risk losing what I had built for decades.
The miracle was:
I think I had already found it, and Chiropractor.com agrees with me! Next: Chapter 3: I had been ignorant for almost 30 years!!! The answer was right WITHIN.
Chiropractor.com and I want to thank you for taking these few minutes to learn about the top ten reasons every Chiropractor should get past their healthy skepticism and use and share this technology. We would simply invite you to get back to us here at [email protected] and let us help you to learn more about this breakthrough of the century. Once again, thank you for your time and we look forward to helping you to help others.
With over three decades of experience as a Doctor of Chiropractic and a certified applied kinesiologist, Dr. Malmed is the past director of chiropractic education at Comfortfit Labs Orthotics. He practiced for five and a half years in a New York Hospital, one of a select number of chiropractors in the country to have done so. His B.A. is from Syracuse University in New York, and his doctor of chiropractic degree is from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. He has been a member of the American Chiropractic Association, the International Chiropractic Association, and the New York State Chiropractic Association. Dr. Malmed is a diplomate of the Chiropractic Board of Examiners, and he is now an integral part of a multi-disciplinary team of healthcare practitioners in physical medicine, rehab, and wellness center. He is thrilled to be a member of the ASEA Medical Professionals Board so that much of his focus in the future will be helping to share the message of ASEA’s redox signaling technology.
