I talked with a DC who has been in practice over 10 years and finally got disgusted with the games played by Medicare, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and other insurance companies. One day he just posted a notice on his office wall that he was done with them, and he went to a strictly cash practice! He moved his office into his house to save money, and lost almost 50% of his patients, but he said his practice was more fun and less stress.
Now, I’m talking about this subject because it points out what Bill Esteb says – stay away from the medical “establishment,” including the HMO rackets, and ask patients to pay you cash.
One of my big rules is “Start out the way you want to go.” That is, decide how you will run your practice, then work on that model. If you don’t know how you will run your practice, get out there and talk to 100 DC’s until you find a practice model that resonates with you, and use it. That’s it. It’s that simple. You might change your mind later, but do it for the right reason and make sure you understand the consequences of the change and are ready for a tough couple of years (like the example above)?.
