"Medicare and insurance companies will never go after chiropractors"

This is one of my favorite lines that I was personally witness of in 2000, told to me by a prominent practice management guru. His information on new patient marketing produced phenomenal results in my practice, but when I brought an OIG advisory opinion to this consultant, I was told “Medicare will never go after chiropractors because we don’t make enough to make it worth it.” With that, I resigned from this management company and started to apply the rules as they were set forth by the Federal government in the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General’s “OIG - Compliance Program for Individual and Small Group Physician Practices.”

This document listed in the Federal Register states that “as it relates to improper inducements, kickbacks and self-referrals, a physician practice would be well advised to have standards and procedures that encourage compliance with government statutes. Many of the marketing systems in Chiropractic today are non-compliant.

When the OIG’s reviews were released in 2005 and 2009, Senators and Congressmen who support our cause ran for cover because the OIG reported that 40 percent of what we bill was to be considered maintenance care. Due to these findings, we are targets because of the percentage of errors and not the dollar amount spent. So, are they going to come after chiropractors? Yes and they are going to keep coming.

Reference: http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-07-07-00390.pdf

Section:Practice Building