Why Chiropractors Should Accept Personal Injury Patients – the WOW Factor
Because it’s a key profit and success differentiator
For many chiropractors, personal injury brings up mixed feelings.
Attorneys? Lien agreements and letters of protection? Med Pay and PIP? Low-ball offers and delayed payments? It’s easy to dismiss PI as more trouble than it is worth. But here’s the thing: chiropractors who crack the personal injury code don’t just survive; they thrive—financially, professionally, and in ways that can be transformative. PI can be and should be a key profit and success differentiator for most any chiropractic office.
What is it about PI that turns skeptics into its biggest advocates? PI is the WOW Factor.
Let me explain:
PI offers chiropractors the opportunity to work with patients who stay on their treatment plan for improved health outcomes because patients having a financial interest in their PI case show up and usually follow the treatment plan. WOW!
These cases involve not just less paperwork than health insurance reimbursement, but also you can avoid the growing pre-authorization denials or hassle as you and your patient decide what is best (not insurers). WOW again!
You have built-in medical collaboration and a referral network of those who do accept personal injury patients on a lien or letter of protection. Only those chiropractic offices with a PI segment are able to get these new patients and all that PI has to offer. WOW, tell me more!
Did I also mention that chiropractic is the lead PI medical specialty across this country in only one area? Truth. That means personal injury is one of the very best new patient gateways for your community to get exposed to the medical magic that is chiropractic.
And best of all from a profit perspective, when approached correctly, PI offers the ability to be paid at or near full out-of-network rates in an age of declining healthcare reimbursements, while feeding all other practice segments. Now that’s WOW!
Now let me expand on what WOW means for you as a business.
W.O.W. means knowing your WORTH, seizing OPPORTUNITY, and leading your business with WISDOM.
First, know your WORTH – setting and supporting reasonable fees. Most providers guess or follow what someone else does. Setting reasonable fees is not only desirable, it is a must in this age of increased medical billing transparency, scrutiny and consumer choice. You must not only set reasonable fees but also lay out verifiable support for your charges. There are strategies and approaches that can make this far easier for you and allow you to battle not just defense attorneys and adjusters, but the patient’s attorney when they later seek to pay you less at the conclusion of a PI case. Know your worth, and be able to support it!
Second, seize the OPPORTUNITY – recognizing the advantages and upping the skill level of all doctors, owners, office managers and back-office billing staff. To gain the PI advantage, you and your team need to learn the language of the PI ocean to successfully navigate it. Much like a ship’s captain is always learning how to better navigate sometimes treacherous waters, so must you when it comes to PI, and: (1) the processes that make you a value driver to the good attorneys, (2) how to be profitably paid, and (3) the way to use a PI segment to help grow all practice segments given the synergy between injury and wellness care. Carpe diem!
Finally, lead with WISDOM – acting with insight, commitment and embracing opportunity. Wisdom is knowing when to spot and embrace opportunity, when to get help to be better, and when to act. Which patients to key in on and which to avoid, which law firms to work with and which to avoid, and which things make you value drivers and which things provide leverage over lawyers when it comes time to get paid. Get books in this unique niche to gain more knowledge. Attend webinars focused on PI to increase those skills. And if you want to get better, faster and make the process easier, find the right coaches who are experts in this area, to allow you not only to increase your skills but to have guidance and to support your entire team in an area that is not your expertise (yet).
Personal injury done right is a game-changer and success difference maker. Too many miss the mark without even realizing it, but when you master this segment, the benefits are undeniable—both for your practice and your patients. PI is what? It’s WOW!
Let this article be your starting point, not the finish line, to sharpen your skills, seize the opportunities in PI, and transform your practice for your patients, your staff, and yourself.
