Pros and Cons of Medical Integration

Pros:
• “One Stop Shop” – The patient, the most important asset of your practice, receives the fullest comprehensive care available.• Every Patient Benefits – In a “MultiCare” setting, patients with all types of health care conditions will be treated, even if the condition is strictly medical (e.g. medication refill, pregnancy tests, cholesterol checkup, etc)
• Limited Insurance Coverage – A fully accredited medical integrated center is
less restricted by most insurance limits.
• Greater Financial Reward – Across the country, as generally accepted established protocol, the medical fee schedule is higher in billing, better in reimbursement, quicker in payment and much easier in collections.
• Patients Are More Comfortable – 98% of the whole population has been (and continues to be) seen by medical doctors and medical institutions. Owning an integrated medical clinic will make your clinic part of the widest and most prevalent health care system in the nation, and all this while keeping your philosophy perfectly intact.

• HMOs, PPOs, and IPAs – The managed care arena is set up to minimize expenses while improving the efficiency of its health care delivery system. In an integrated medical center, the “best of all worlds” is present to procure just what the future is demanding.
• Patient Retention – Because our society has been so trained to believe that medicine is the “only” answer to all health issues, MDs, DCs, NPs and PTs working together will prove that there are many other alternative treatments with better results for the same condition.
• Liability – Multiple specialists working together in one setting have a greater understanding of patients’ needs and conditions, and therefore minimize liabilities.
• Competition – Our generation of patients “expect only the best” – efficiency, timing, and savings. The “one-stop” clinic can deliver the most unadulterated care available.

• Growth – Your center can offer as many services as needed:
 Medical: General medicine; neurology; physiatry; orthopedic care…
 Musculoskeletal: Chiropractic; physiotherapy; massage therapy…
 Rehabilitation: Physical therapy; physical medicine, occupational therapy…
 Diagnostics: EMG; NCV; EEG; SSEP; SEMG…
 Ancillary services: Blood work, durable medical equipment, in-office testing…
 Contracting: MRI; CT; diagnostic ultrasound…
 In-patient: Hospital privileges; emergencies…
 Out-patient: medical referral; medical network…

• Workers Compensation and Injuries – Employers, adjusters and patients attempting to receive efficient, thorough, diversified care will find integrated medical centers a viable solution.

Cons:
• Philosophy – If the DC is not well “anchored” in chiropractic philosophy, the center can lose its identity and become just another medical clinic with a part-time DC.
• Treatment Protocols – Issues will have to be discussed between MDs/NPs and DCs until everyone is comfortable with one another’s diagnostic and treatment protocols.
• Personality – In the beginning stages there may be a personality clash between the MD/NP and DC, caused mostly by “a power struggle”.
• Expenses – There are certain expenses increases: i.e., legal, consultant, billing staff, management time, MD/NP compensation, etc.
• Marketing – A new advertising budget will have to be reconsidered.
• Reputation – If not appropriately presented, friends, colleagues, and relatives may think that the DC has “abandoned” the true purpose of chiropractic.
• Confusion – Initially, patients who have been treating by this long-established chiropractic clinic may not quite understand why new treatment protocols have been created, which can be perceived as an anti-chiropractic entity (again if not marketed properly).
• Liability – Not properly understanding the billing, as well as not having a qualified healthcare attorney, can definitely jeopardize the viability of any future growth.