working in chiropractic setting

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

I'm wondering if you can offer some recommendations and information for me.

Thursday I will be interviewing with a chiropractor who is looking for someone

to

offer acupuncture part-time in his " very, very busy " clinic. He is open to all

financial options: me paying rent, receiving a percentage, and offering me

straight salary. He's asked me to come to our meeting with a clear idea of what

I

want. Having not worked in this type of setting before, I have some questions

that

some of you might be able to help me with. If you have or currently work in a

chiropractor's office, these are my questions:

 

How long are patient visits? Do you do away with TCM intake and diagnosis, and

just do " symptomatic " treatments? What do you write down for diagnosis -

biomedical or TCM?

 

Do you use e-stim or other modalities in addition to acupuncture? (heat lamps,

hydrocollator pads, liniments, tui na, etc.) What do you find most effective

for

the kinds of conditions I'd most likely see in a chiropractor's office? Do you

offer herbal medicine also, or only acupuncture?

 

Do you find it best for a patient to receive acupuncture before, or after an

adjustment, or does it make no difference? Or is it best to receive these

treatments on different days?

 

How often do you see clients, and for how long?

 

How many patients do you see hourly? What is your schedule like (how much time

do

you spend on intake/assessment, treatment, conversation; how often do you move

on

to a next client)? How many treatment rooms do you use?

 

I'm trying to figure out how to estimate what patients will be paying. Since

I've

been running a cash practice, I'm not familiar with fees that are typical for

insurance, workers' comp, etc. Do you know where I can find that info?

 

If you were in my shoes, would you choose to pay rent, take a percentage, or ask

for salary, and why would you make that choice? I'd like for his staff to

handle

all billing. And I know that everything except a straight salary means waiting

for

payment to come in... but I'm not sure what salary amount would be reasonable.

Any

ideas?

 

Would you recommend that I keep my acupuncture records separate from the

chiropractic records? I think I'd need to... Do you think I should have access

to

the chiropractic records?

 

I've been treating patients so far mostly for internal disorders. I have

successfully treated pain, but I think more of my pain patients would have come

in

more often if their insurance covered acupuncture, and therefore would have had

better results.

 

If there are other consideratis I haven't yet thought of, please share them with

me

also. Thank you in advance for your help.

 

Sincerely,