A variety of healthcare practices today are moving to a concierge practice model. Is this the right fit for you?
This type of care delivery model—called concierge care, or concierge medicine in medical practices — features much more practitioner access, and highly personalized, comprehensive care.
Many medical practices have found this to be an effective model for different reasons. When the concierge medicine model first appeared in the mid-1990s with Seattle-based MD International, it introduced the idea of “luxury medical care” and came with a price tag to match—with patients paying up to $25,000 per year for the boutique healthcare experience.
Though some patients still pay a five-figure fee for their concierge care, the average fee for membership in a concierge practice nowadays is between $1,500 and $2,400 a year—or between $125 to $200 a month.
Some chiropractors are calling themselves concierge practices as well. However, most chiropractors who are calling themselves concierge chiropractors are just mobile chiropractors which is usually not a good business model.
A VIP wellness chiropractic model may be another viable cash practice model to consider if you apply the concierge medical practice principles. So today we are going to take a closer look at what a concierge practice model looks like and how it can be an effective approach for a chiropractic practice.
One of the reasons why many practitioners like the concierge practice model is because there are a variety of different types and iterations of this model. This flexibility can be appealing. For instance, one way to successfully do a concierge practice model is to become a personal wellness doctor for wealthy families or individuals. One practitioner that I knew was paid $10,000 a month plus expenses to travel around with a wealthy couple and take care of their chiropractic needs and other wellness needs including nutrition, exercise, and stress management.
This practice model obviously has tremendous upside as there is no overhead. This may not be a good practice model if you are married with children but a single doctor who would like to travel and serve in this way it could be a good fit.
Another type of concierge practice model is focused on working with individuals or families for a flat fee retainer each year. For instance, if you have a retainer of $2000 per year and you have 200 people who take advantage of that price then that is an additional $400,000 in revenue per year for your practice. This is an attractive way to do a concierge practice model since you can still work with new patients in a traditional way but also work with retainer patients that are highly motivated to consistently optimize their health.
Another reason that many practitioners are attracted to the concierge practice model is that if you set it up properly you can give more personalized care to a group of individuals that are very engaged with their health. If you are interested in teaching patients how to live a wellness lifestyle the concierge practice model can be very attractive. For your retainer clients, you cannot only provide chiropractic services but also nutritional plans, exercise plans, stress management plans, and other wellness-focused classes and workshops.
Another reason some practitioners are drawn to the concierge practice model is that they want to work with more motivated clients who are looking to live with a different level of wellness than the average person. People that are willing to invest $2000 to $3000 a year on their health tend to be more motivated and are more likely to comply with your recommendations and collaborate on their wellness plan.
These type of practice members can be a joy to work with since they are so invested in their overall health and well-being. This can really energize a practitioner who may be frustrated or feeling burnt out with a traditional practice.
The last exciting reason that many practitioners are moving in the direction of a concierge practice model is to stabilize the income and improve the retention of your more motivated patients. The concierge practice model is focused on consistent monthly or annual automatic payments that can really help stabilize your practice cash flow. This can also help to improve retention as patients are making a long-term commitment to their health.
For these 4 reasons and many others healthcare practitioners of a variety of types are moving to a concierge practice model. If you are interested in a concierge practice it's also extremely important that your practice is not insurance dependent. Read more about creating a cash practice in this article.
