Chiropractic Software Patient Education Increases Compliance
Personal Growth Could patient education help reduce Dr. Ben’s exasperation with compliance? Ben pulled a weed viciously. His wife looked at him with raised eyebrows. “What did that dandelion ever do to you?” “I guess I’m just exasperated,” Ben said, tossing the weed into a wheelbarrow and starting in on another. “You can take out all your exasperation on these weeds,” Carmen laughed. “But tell me what you’re upset about.” “Another no-show this afternoon!” Ben said, pulling more weeds with more force than was absolutely necessary. “I’m just getting sick of it.” “I thought you had worked out –” “Oh, we have a good system in place now, as far as the practice is concerned. But I still hate it. This particular patient skips half her regular adjustments, and then comes in with pain and emergencies that she probably wouldn’t have if she just followed her treatment plan. It’s frustrating to know that I can’t do my best for her because she won’t cooperate and be in compliance.” Carmen nodded sympathetically, digging out a stubborn root. “I sometimes think,” Ben went on, sitting back on his heels, “that they don’t really get what we’re doing.” “Maybe they don’t,” Carmen suggested. She reached across to help their son with a tough weed he was trying to pull. “They act like what you do is magic. They don’t know why it works, they just feel happy that it does.” “But you see, that attitude means that they don’t follow through with my recommendations.” “You explain things clearly, I know,” Carmen assured him. “I’ve heard you do it.” “Better sometimes than at other times,” Ben admitted. “It depends how busy I am, and which room I’m in — some have better visual aids than others.” Carmen laughed again. “I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s true. Plus, you’re not always the one giving the explanation. It’s not really systematic, is it?” “I guess it’s not,” Ben agreed. “We all just answer questions and give explanations as needed — office staff, too. And of course we work together on patient cases, or with other health care professionals. There can be a lot of people involved in a single medical decision, and we don’t all end up sharing the same information.” “I don’t do a lot of education in my business,” Carmen said, “but I know that anything that doesn’t use a good system ends up taking more work, more time, and more trouble than it needs to.” “Hmm.” Ben stood up, brushing dirt from his knees, and hoisted the wheelbarrow. “It sounds like non-compliant patients are my fault.” “That’s not how I meant it,” objected Carmen. Jonathan scrambled up into the wheelbarrow, shouting that he wanted a ride. “I’m just going with what you said — they don’t always get what you’re doing. Then they might not realize the importance of doing their part.” “I’m doing my part,” Jonathan announced. His parents assured him that he was, and Carmen lifted him down from the wheelbarrow so Ben could tip the weeds onto the compost pile. “A little patient education might do wonders,” Ben said. “I hadn’t really thought about it, but I’m sure the patients would be more cooperative if they understood the value of follow through.” Could patient education help reduce Dr. Ben’s exasperation? Disclaimer: For HIPAA compliance, all characters appearing in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental.
Focus, Identify, Create Value and Repeat
Your recipe for working with people you enjoy, know you can help, and making more money. by Garrett B. Gunderson To be as productive as possible it is essential to be crystal clear about what your business is specifically designed to do, and who you are ideally positioned to serve. This means identifying your best existing patients and figuring out who they really are as people. If you can understand what age group, gender, education level, what they do for hobbies, what books they read, where they hang out, how much money they make, etc. then you can make it a point to go out and find more people who are just like your best patients/customers. To do this make a conscious choice to determine who is already existing and “Ideal”, and build a relationship with them. Have appreciation dinners, invite them out to hike or snowshoe, or share experiences with them. Let them become more than just clients or patients – build a relationship. In this process you will not only learn how to serve them better, you’ll understand how to attract more people just like them. This leads to a business full of people that you love to see and who love to come see you. Once this happens the profits are an inevitable result of serving those that appreciate your value the most. They key is to overcome the concern that is you focus or get to narrow that you will miss out on others you could have otherwise have worked with. Here are some questions and considerations to help address and overcome this objection. If you were to look at your top 20 percent of people you work with what percentage of your revenue are they responsible for? How many people have they referred versus the bottom 20 percent? What percentage of your time is used for addressing people that do not pay on time, do not refer people and do not appreciate your service? What impact does that have on your energy, confidence and ultimately the bottom-line? Do you think there are plenty of people in your community or even your state that fit the “ideal” profile? What would your life look like if that was who you spent your time and focus on? What level of value could you create for them? How would it allow you to focus more on value creation and less on appeasing people that do not appreciate who you are, what you do or that simply are not compliant with implementing your recommendations and getting the full value you offer? So, find the best people that you enjoy working with the most. That gets the best results and refer the most people. Focus on building those relationships, cultivating those relationships, and asking them how you can create the most value for them. To discover other overlooked opportunities most business owners miss and to gain more freedom in your business as we expose models most didn’t think was possible, yet are achievable in a short period of time, check out www.freedomfasttrack.com/cfw as I interview business strategist Brandon Allen. Brandon opened up and built Wells Fargo branches for a decade before becoming the COO of my firm, Freedom FastTrack. In order to more fully express his expertise and purpose he now shares his insights and discoveries through business expansion and management with Freedom FastTrack members. In a bottom-line, no fluff interview he will be sharing how to: integrate metrics and numbers to improve business unveil the biggest mistakes business owners make in managing their business (he exposed this for me and transformed my INC 500 business) how can you create and leverage your authority in your market how to address and confront employee behavior in the business time management the key habits to run a successful business and more
Chiropractic Software Management Dashboard
Charting a Course by Dr. Brian Capra Can a dashboard simplify Dr. Ben’s path to his dream practice? Pam’s expression was troubled. “Let me make sure I understand this, Dr. Ben,” she said. Ben smiled at her encouragingly. “You want me to find all this information every week and type it into a spreadsheet.” Ben smiled even harder. “I know it sounds like a lot of extra work,” he said. “I’m convinced that it’ll save us time in the long run, though.” “It’ll be extra work,” Pam agreed, “but I don’t mind that. I’m just not sure you’ve thought this through, if you don’t mind my saying so.” Ben stared. He was prepared for objections to the extra work or the tediousness of the task, but he hadn’t practiced any response to an announcement like this one. “What do you mean?” “Spreadsheets are all very well,” Pam said, “but what are you going to do with that information? We’ll put it all in and print it out and then what?” “We’ll be able to see if no-shows are increasing, for example,” said Ben. He felt himself getting irritated and tried not to show it. “We’ll see if there are things we need to change.” “With no-shows that might work, but what about the big numbers? We might not be able to see a pattern. And what if the numbers just sort of go up and down? What if there really isn’t any pattern?” Ben frowned. “We don’t have to print it out. We can leave it on the screen, and that way we can always do calculations or insert a chart if we need to.” “But we have nine different things we’re watching. If we look on the screen, after a couple of months we won’t be able to see the labels any more.” “You can fix that in Excel, right?” “I don’t know,” Pam said, opening her eyes wide. “I don’t think I even know how to do calculations in spreadsheets. I never took that kind of class.” Ben had never taken that kind of class, either. But he knew who had. “Just a moment,” he said to Pam, and he returned to his office. When Ben emerged later, he returned to the question of the spreadsheets with Pam. “We don’t need spreadsheets. We need a dashboard,” he said firmly. Pam nodded. “We need a dashboard that shows all the information to us in a simple, visual way so that it makes as much sense to us as X-rays do.” Pam was smiling now, too. “We need a dashboard that will not just show us the numbers. There are different kinds of charts that make the relationships within information clear. Like radar charts, which are kind of like spider webs showing how different pieces of information compare or connect. And trend charts, which show how something changes over time. And histograms–” “Have you been talking to your wife?” Pam asked. “I married a woman with a business degree, I admit,” said Ben, smiling. “The point is, we’re not back in the 20th century when we had to rely on spreadsheets. So instead of taking extra time to fill in the spreadsheets, please find an integrated system that will capture all the data and create a simple, friendly user interface that will make sense to us right away… or as soon as possible.” Dr. Ben got ready for his next patient. He felt sure that they were on track, even if he had gotten distracted by spreadsheets. Can a dashboard simplify Dr. Ben’s path to his dream practice? Disclaimer: For HIPAA compliance, all characters appearing in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental.
Chiropractic Business Tips – Riskiest Investment is a 401K
13 Reasons Why Your 401(k) Is Your Riskiest “Investment” by Garrett B. Gunderson As a financial advocate to business owners, I’ve worked with hundreds of professionals, most of whom diligently save in a 401(k). But when I teach them the following concepts, they’re eager for alternatives. Consider these 13 dangers of 401(k)s: 1. No Cash Flow The theory is that the money compounds, but this really means it stagnates. Most people will not choose to utilize these funds even when a compelling opportunity will make them far more money than the 401(k) would, even accounting for the penalties. Numerous legitimate opportunities are passed by as people stay “in it for the long haul.” 2. Lack of Liquidity The money is tied up with penalties attached for early withdrawal—unless you know how to safely navigate specific, obscure IRS codes for penalty-free withdrawals. 3. Market Dependency The performance of the funds is dependent upon uncontrollable market factors. Therefore, your retirement plans are based on unknowable projections. Do you want to live your ideal life only if the market cooperates? 4. Lack of Knowledge How much do you really know about your 401(k)? Do you know the funds in which you’re invested? Do you know the details of the companies inside those funds? Do you know the fund manager’s philosophy, history, and performance? How can you expect to gain a return from something you know so little about? And how can this be called investing? It’s not investing—it’s gambling. 5. Administrative Fees The funds are subject to various (and usually hidden) administrative fees in addition to expense ratios and 12-b1 fees—a fact ignored by most contributors and advisors. 6. Under-Utilization Because of Tax Deferral If you don’t like paying taxes today, why would you want to pay them any more in the future? The tax deferral aspect, which is touted as a great boon, is actually a primary factor contributing to under-utilization. Most retirees let the money sit for fear of triggering tax consequences. 7. Higher Tax Brackets Upon Withdrawal It’s ironic that people project healthy returns on their qualified plan while also projecting they’ll be in a lower tax bracket at retirement. If you have achieved any measure of success, you should actually be in a higher tax bracket at retirement, although most advisors assume the opposite. Do you think taxes will be higher or lower in the future? Deferring your taxes results in a far greater tax burden than would be incurred using different products and strategies. 8. Estate Taxes 401(k)s are sitting ducks for estate taxes. Much 401(k) money is never utilized because contributors don’t make withdrawals in fear of paying taxes. Yet when the money is passed on to the next generation, there is not only a likely income tax, but also an estate tax. 9. No Exit Strategy Getting into a 401(k) seems simple enough. But how are you going to get out of it? Do you understand the penalties and tax consequences? 10. Subject to Government Control and Change Your 401(k) does not even technically belong to you. Read the fine print and you will find “FBO” (For Benefit Of). It’s technically owned by the government, but provided for your benefit. It’s essentially a tax code. Judging by history, 401(k)s are in great jeopardy. What will keep them from changing the rules and taking your hard-earned money? 11. Disinvesting Suppose you’ve retired and begin taking interest payments from your 401(k). You project you can withdraw 6 percent a year, based on an average annual return of 8 percent. But what happens to your principal when the market is volatile? If in one year your fund is down 10 percent, you’re tapping into your principal to take your interest withdrawal. At that point, you have only two choices: start withdrawing principal leave the money alone until your account is up again. 12. No Holistic Plan I’ve witnessed many people whose finances are in shambles, yet they diligently contribute to their 401(k). It’s like a person trying to take care of a scraped knee when their wrist is slit. They urgently need a macroeconomic plan that identifies, prioritizes, and manages all pieces of their financial puzzle, with all pieces coordinated and working together. 13. Neglect of Stewardship 401(k)s cause contributors to abdicate their responsibility. They think they can just throw enough money at the “experts” and somehow they’ll end up thirty years later with lots of money. And when things don’t turn out that way they blame others. Interestingly, traditional media is finally realizing what I’ve been warning investors about for more than 10 years. For example, see the 60 Minute special, “Retirement Dreams Disappear With 401(k)s” and the Time Magazine article, “Why It’s Time to Retire the 401(k).” Saving for retirement is wise and prudent, but there are other investment philosophies, products, and strategies that would meet your financial objectives much more quickly and safely than a 401(k). Ok, so if a 401(k) isn’t the best option, what is? See how sustainable wealth can be created with investing and get a check-up on how you are currently applying it to your life. Go to www.freedomfasttrack.com/cfw and take our Financial Health Assessment at no charge and learn about our Curriculum for Wealth to get a deeper dive and more answers.