observations from our travels in the world of chiropractic

Are You Prepared?

If You Get a Medicare Audit,
Do You Know What to Do Next?

If you haven’t already heard, CMS Medicare has launched a massive audit project aimed at chiropractic offices around the country. Executive Order #13520 “Reducing Improper Payments and Eliminating Waste in Federal Programs” has unleashed a random attack of chiropractors aimed at recovering an estimated $174,100,000 in over payments.

Medicare has hired two companies to start auditing chiropractors. There is no way to know if you will get a request for an audit, but I can tell you this from being on the road: very, very few clinics will pass a Medicare audit based on the documentation that I have seen.

That’s not to say you aren’t providing proper, necessary care. Far from that. The Medicare documentation requirements for the physician’s signature alone are three pages long.

So What Should You Do?

PM&A is prepared to help you. We have had 25 years of experience with Medicare audits and appeals. If you get a request for an audit, DON’T freak out. Do this instead:

• Do not ignore it! You have 30 days to respond.
• Do not let your staff photocopy and send the records out blindly!
• Call our office immediately and request our special MPDR Program: MEDICARE PRE-AUDIT DOCUMENTATION REVIEW

We will come to your office & go through any requested records with a fine-tooth comb to assist you in ensuring that you have complete documentation for all services rendered, that each date of service is properly documented, that all PART forms are complete, and that active care modifiers have been properly used.

We will go over each entry in the chart with the treating doctor to ensure that every requirement of Medicare documentation is met for the service you rendered. If addendums need to be made, we’ll ensure that the addendums meet or exceed Medicare requirements.

We will also draft a follow up and Medicare Compliance Plan for your office for any areas that need to be corrected so that you can avoid potentially devastating pre-payment future audits or fraud charges.

We have successful fought AND WON on numerous Medicare audits. No other chiropractic management company can say that. A bad Medicare audit can cost well over $100,000 and thousands of staff hours – and more importantly, hurts your patients and their right to chiropractic coverage.

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Medicare Audit Emergency Response Number:     920.459.8500

The MPDR is available to chiropractors in WI, MN, IL, IN, & ND only. This is an emergency response program and slots will be limited to PM&A clients first, then first come. Do NOT send records without calling us first.

The MPDR program covers up to two full days (20 hours) in your office, plus limited follow up. The cost is $4,800 prepaid. PM&A management clients can receive a 20% discount if they are active and current members.

Call for terms and conditions for this service. 920.459.8500

TRUE HEALTHCARE REFORM

Patients regular utilization of
chiropractors as primary care physicians reduces the need for:

Hospitalization by 60.2%
Hospital days by 59%
Pharmaceutical usage by 85%
Outpatient surgeries and procedures by 62%
Overall global health care cost by 50%

This according to a clinical and cost utilization study conducted by an independent physician association done over a 7 year
period and that included doctors of all licenses. J.M.P.T. Vol30, Issue 4, pages 263-269, by Dr. Richard Sarnat, M.D.

For a printable copy of this statement click here: True Healthcare Reform Poster

Facebook  is one of the fastest growing social networking medias on the internet.  It’s free and it’s fun.

If you dont’ have a Facebook page for your clinic it’s time to get one.  If you do have one, that is great!  Find us and friend us at  Petty, Michel & Associates Facebook Page.

Whether your a veteran or a novice to facebooking you can now use the helpful tips, compiled by Dana, to help spread the word about chiropractic and bring more people to your office.

Read Dana’s Tips at: Facebook Marketing Tips

A web site is nice, but can it really generate new patients for you?

The answer is yes! And over the years, depending on the doctor’s internet marketing efforts, we have seen more new patients calling the office because of something they read on the Internet.

You probably have a web site. It could be a templated one you subscribe to or your own customized site.

But having a site is the easy part – it’s what you do with it that counts.  It is not like a phone book ad that you redesign every 12 months and then get conned into buying a larger ad by the phone book rep.

We have been studying internet marketing for many years now. It is a science and an art unto itself, with new approaches and technologies evolving monthly.  But there is also an awful lot of hype. Every company has a different pitch about how their web site is better. There are new gurus being born every week. Then, at a family barbeque, your 14 year old geeky nephew says he can throw up a web site for you over his lunch as part of a school project.  So, what do you do?

Because of all these things, your web site may just sit there.  Maybe it catches something now and then like a fishing lure, but more likely, it is mostly ignored and has floated to the river’s edge doing nothing.

We have a solution to this.

We will be sending more info about this soon. But the short version is that someone in your office should be able to work on your Internet marketing every week. Like any marketing, it only works if it is done.

We will be introducing the Chiropractic Internet Marketing Assistant Checklist and Support Program soon. Believe me – the Basic Level will be so easy even a Caveman, or Cavewoman, can do it.  (No offense intended!)

The internet is becoming more of a marketing medium for your office – and can be effectively used for generating new patients and keeping the ones you have.

The bottom line? 1-3 new patients for a few hours spent each month working on Internet marketing. Not a bad return.

Make sure you listen to our guest on this Tuesdays’ live teleclass this Tuesday, June 29th, at 12:30 Central time.

Dr. Jamie Phillips, having just given a presentation to the California Chiropractic Association, will be talking about practical steps you and your staff can immediately implement to get more new patients from the Internet.

We have known Dr. Jamie for many years and are impressed with her knowledge, savvy, service, and results. She loves marketing and chiropractic, and is effectively applying these passions to the internet.
More info on Dr. Jamie. LINK
As usual, there is no charge to our clients. The access number and phone number will be posted on your Members site and we will also send you a special reminder email.  If you are not an active client, you can register here: LINK.

Looking forward to many more new patients .. and returning active patients.

We have been working on some new marketing projects and are now ready to tell you about them.

They are hot, effective, and don’t cost an arm and a leg. You can do them and if you do, you will see more new patients.

They are not totally a secret, so I am going to tell you what they are. But first, I want you to know why we are doing so.

We’ve often been asked why we do what we do: Why do we consult and coach chiropractors. Why not dentists or MDs, or why consult at all? Why this line of work? Particularly since we are not chiropractors.

Well, first of all, we have consulted dentists, MDs, podiatrists, even attorneys and are not averse to doing so. We have done well with them, in fact.

Not being chiropractors gives us a distinct advantage. We are not biased to a particular technique, or so in love with our own procedures and with what worked with our patients that we can’t help another doctor work out what is uniquely best for her or him.

But the thing is, we really share the philosophy and mission of chiropractic – and the Attitude as well.

Chiropractors help people get well without the use of drugs. They promote a healthy lifestyle. Now, it should be no news to you reading this that this has always gone against Big Money.  The Big Money is in disease care.

We truly feel that chiropractors are the Health Rangers and Health Champions in a world dominated by gold digging corporations that manipulate public opinion to eat badly – and buy more and more drugs.

Chiropractic, by its very nature, opposes this and has for over a 100 years.

But reviling disease care peddlers can only provide you with a short term self righteous ego boost.  The real solution is not to loudly ridicule drug companies and the MD monopolies, or their bed partner, the health insurer. (But it may make you feel better, so go ahead! In fact, give ‘em hell.)

The real solution is to tell your story.

Communicate loudly and continuously the benefits of chiropractic as the FIRST solution people should seek for their HEALTH.

We have seen and know the benefits of chiropractic and the chiropractic lifestyle and have seen the alternatives: sick, brainwashed people fed drugs and receiving “procedures” at great expense to our economy.

So that’s why we do this. It is a personal thing.

Now, to help you tell your story this summer, we have a number of super cool – and effective – programs which we will be presenting over the next few weeks.

1.    Internet Marketing. Having a web site is no longer enough. It is what you DO with it that counts. We have put together action steps that a chiropractic assistant can follow to help get you more new patients from the Internet.  (Special teleclass program with Dr. Jamie Phillips on Tuesday, June 29th. More info soon.)

2.    Community Services. Since the 1980’s, screenings have always been around. We have organized our successful experiences with screenings, and other external events, to show you how to greatly increase your new patients from these events.  This is a fun program.

3.    Energizing Your Marketing and Your Practice. Without giving away the whole program, we have new slant on an old approach to practice marketing that has proven to generate more new patients just with your current programs. The best part: it doesn’t cost a dime!

4.    Innate Marketing Secrets: How To Generate More New Patients Invisibly. This is based on study we have been doing for a while now. It is almost spooky in how it works.  But it does.  Stay tuned.

5.    Practice Management. We will show you a powerful management tool – that the whole staff can use – that increases production and improves performance.  And it is nothing new. You have it already, but for the most part, most offices just don’t use it.

It’s summer time and we want to help you get more people healthier.

Watch for more information on these programs soon.

We just finished our 10 classes in 1 day seminar in Minneapolis – our “10 in 1.”  From what I heard and saw, everyone had a great time. I know we did. And for my money, I think we had some of the best professionals in the country giving presentations – as well as attending!

In addition to great presentations by Phyllis Frase on chiropractic philosophy and procedures for staff, Dave Michel on insurance, and myself on marketing and practice building, we had two guest doctors.

One was Dr. Tom Potisk who went over how he maintained a joyful practice for 25 years in a multi-doctor setting with 2 associate doctors.

Then, as a special guest, we were pleased to have Dr. Shane Walker who is the president of the Federation of Straight Chiropractors. He lit the room up with passion, statistics, and purpose and reminded everyone about the power of chiropractic, as well as it’s importance in society today.

So, just a reminder:

Our Milwaukee seminar is coming up soon.

Dave, Phyllis, and myself all have new material covering C.A. training, insurance and reimbursement procedures, and marketing and practice building.  Our presentations are all based upon the work we do each week in offices across the country – and what we see working, and not working.

For our Milwaukee seminar, we are especially pleased to have two exceptional doctors giving presentations on Thursday, May 20th.  Both are highly qualified and successful doctors that set great examples for excellence in their practice, business, and life.

We will be sending info out on them soon, but you can find out more here.

Hope to see you all in Milwaukee.

It was 40 years ago when Senator Nelson, from Wisconsin, helped start Earth Day.  (It started in March, 1970 with teach-ins at the University of Calif. Davis and San Francisco. I was there!)   Since then, there has been a battle between natural health, and chemicals and toxins.

Chemicals in Our Environment

• 1972:  DDT, an organochlorine pesticide, was banned
• 1976:  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establishes the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA)

62,000 chemicals were grandfathered in as being safe.  Two chemicals have been banned since 1976.

1. 1978 Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB)
2. 1989 Asbestos

There has been no attempt to ban a toxic chemical since 1989.
The amount of chemicals produced or imported by the United States in one day would fill up 623,000 tanker trucks with a capacity of 8,000 gallons each. (Taken from Dr. Dan Murphy who quotes: The Body Toxic How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being. By Nena Baker 2008)

Not counting the chemicals Americans take in from hormones, pesticides, herbicides, and other poisons in our fast food, super-sized nation, we pound prescription drugs in to our bodies.

American Prescription Drug Use

• The average number of prescriptions [drugs] per person, annually, in 1993 was seven.
• The average number of prescriptions [drugs] per person, annually, in 2000 was eleven.
• [The average number of prescriptions drugs per person], annually, in 2004 was twelve.

The total number of annual prescriptions [drugs] in the United States now stands at about 3 billion. The cost per year is about $180 billion, headed to and estimated $414 billion by 2011.  (taken from Dr. Dan Murphy who quotes:How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies Greg Critser 2005)

This is actually old data and the average number by 2010 is probably much higher. I have seen patients walk in with pages of 20 “’scripts”, and heard of even as many as 50. I am sure you have too.

In Our Drinking Water
A vast array of pharmaceutical including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.  in the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas _ from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.   (USAToday)

Our Babies Swim Now In A Soup Of Chemicals.
287 human-made chemicals – most of them hazardous – in the blood of infants

According to a study released by the Environmental Working Group, a policy research and activist organization, tests measuring the so-called “body burden” of industrial chemicals, conducted on ten random samples of umbilical cord blood, detected 287 chemicals.

The samples, supplied by the American Red Cross, registered 180 chemicals known to cause cancer in adults, 217 that are linked to brain and nervous system damage, and 208 that have been shown to affect fetal or child development in animal tests. For 209 of the contaminants, this was the first time researchers had identified the chemicals in newborn blood.                                (Environmental Working Group)

What Should Be Done?
What do the so called health care leaders say about the poisons we feed to our planet, our people, and eventually our unborned children?  Where are the medical doctors or health insurers or pharmaceutical CEO’s speaking out against this. Or, our elected officials?

No one is talking, or if so, their voices are not heard.

And you know why?  Simple: because for the most part, they are not HEALTH Leaders.

And who are the health leaders?

You are! The chiropractor and the chiropractic professional. A healthy populace needs more than just “providers.” Your community needs leadership. The members of your town are bombarded with ads for drugs, for fast food, for industrial corporate food, for the easy “no effort way” to what they want. Add in natural human laziness, and you will find that your patients are getting sicker.

Health is a word which has been hijacked by the drug and insurance companies. But the chiropractor is the true health leader.

Earth Day gives you an easy avenue to extend your reach as a health leader into your community as well.  Well educated patients and community will seek to have a healthy town and a healthy body without the use of chemicals.

Ed

Sample posters. Link

Come celebrate with us on Earth Day by attending our seminar in Minneapolis.

Printable version of this article to give to patients. Chiropractic and Earth Day-for patients

New Beginnings is an incredible weekend of Chiropractic Philosophy and Fellowship.

Scheduled for April 16th – 18th at the Ocean Place Resort and Spa in Long Branch NJ, this weekend is sure to renew and revive your passion for chiropractic.

A review of the January New Beginnings weekend can be viewed here: Chiropractic Family

Did you know that 73% of chiropractors can make all the money they want without ever working?

This is proven by 83% of studies.

Yes, that’s write. You two can make all the money you want, and even more, without even working.

Honest.  No more talks, letters, or yellow pages or even internets.  You don’t even have to sea patients.

With this SECRET system I was able to make lots ‘o bucks.  (Doctre Phulo Vit)

Am I talking to you?  Yes, we are.

I have just discovered 6.3 steps on how to make all the money you want with out hardly working ever and getting all the love you need.   Honest.

Yea. Baby.

So, call us now at 800 APR-FOOL

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Don’t be fooled.   Get the real stuff.   Come to our seminar in Minneapolis and Milwaukee this spring.

See you there.

Happy Easter to you all.

Love,

The PM&A Team

Being a chiropractor can be a lonely job.

Who knows what it is like to adjust patients late in the afternoon while one patient is going on and on and the next one is dirty from work and smells?  And yet another just called in who has been under care for two weeks and is in pain and wants to be seen right away – who knows what that is like?

Someone who has been there and done that – another doctor.

You aren’t looking for advice, that can wait. You don’t need a lecture.  It would just be good to talk with someone who has been there before and survived, or better, thrived.

Let me introduce Dr. Tom Potisk.  He is not the overbearing charming salesman type of a doctor that you often see in consulting programs.   Actually, not too many doctors are really like that.  In fact, most doctors are very similar to Dr. Tom.

Dr. Tom and Dave, Phyllis and myself have been discussing an additional ingredient to practice success that that we feel doctors need. Simply, another doctor to talk to.  They have us, of course. But we are managers and marketers and practice builders.  That is our specialty.  And we too have been there and done that, since the 1980’s.  But as managers – not as doctors.

We feel doctors need both for practice success: a professional manager to help build a profitable and self sustaining business AND the support and perspective of a professional, experienced chiropractor.

So we are very happy to partner with Dr. Tom Potisk in providing services to our wonderful wonderful clients.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Tom will be giving a number of presentations at our upcoming seminars this year.  One of the classes will be on Doctor to Doctor: Reclaiming the Joy of Practice.  This is his basic theme: how, as a doctor, you can truly enjoy each day doing what you do as a doctor.  His approach is simply – doctor to doctor. Not as a coach, but as a fellow doctor who has been through what you are going through and made it to the other side – very successfully.

Listen to this his first teleclass you – you will find it very motivating and reassuring.

Hope to “see” you there,

Ed

Here is what others have said who have listed to his full presentation:

“Dr. Tom’s program was fantastic! I laughed, I cried, and I went back to my practice with a new, deeper sense of dedication and confidence. All DCs need to hear his message!” – Dr. Donna Stackpool, Lake Geneva WI

“Reclaim the Joy of Practice was an amazing presentation!  Dr. Potisk made the evening fun and enlightening with great tips on how to stay happy and truly enjoy Chiropractic.  I loved the history references with BJ.  It was a great reminder of how generations past fought for Chiropractic and how we need to honor them and the profession AND continue the passion.  Thanks Dr. Potisk for lighting the fire again!” – Tara Gill DC, Delevan WI

“After nearly 40 years of practice, I thought I heard the last of the great, authentic, and sincere chiropractic programs years ago; then along comes Dr. Tom Potisk with his Reclaim the Joy of Practice presentation. He brought me right back to what I remembered as the good-ole-days with an adjustment between my ears. High pi Dr. Tom !”  – Jerry Zelm DC, Oconomowoc WI

And you can read more about Dr. Tom Potisk here.