223- Telehealth and Chiropractic: What You Need to Know

Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor, where each week we deliver the latest chiropractic research and marketing strategies, all in the time it takes to get to your office. Now here's your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. On today's episode, we are going to break down the importance of telehealth. Why you need to be thinking about it if you haven't started yet, and also some tactical strategies and tips to get started in this space. So this is going to be a very, very impactful and important episode. Before we get started, I'll say a few words about Rock Tape. Rock Tape is proud to be a sponsor of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. And if I were you, I would head over to rocktape.com they have a variety of virtual classes going on. They are running sales at different times. So if you have wanted to pick up a new technique, learn more about movement assessments or their blades courses, now is the time to do so. Head over to Rocktape.com or check out their Facebook page to keep up to date on all of the dates of those classes online and all of the additional sales that they are running as well. But as I said at the top, today's episode is all about telehealth. Number one, why is it important for your practice? Number two, what are some different ways that you can think about it and make it applicable to how you deliver care as a chiropractor? And the third part about it is how do you get started actually implementing in your practice? So let's pick it up with number one, why do you need to be thinking about it? Ultimately, it's because of the people in your community and because of your patients. Just because you are not seeing them in the four walls of your practice does not mean that that they magically got better. Right? That's the key thing. There are tons of people out there still struggling with pain and musculoskeletal issues that trust you, that rely on you to provide them with care. Just because you cannot deliver an adjustment in person does not mean you cannot help them achieve their health goals. So what do I mean by that? There are two primary paths that I see chiropractors helping people with regards to telehealth. One is at home exercise recommendations, being able to assess the movement of your patient virtually via video and then being able to follow up and prescribe at home care. That is super, super, super important. Do not diminish the importance of that for many people, that is going to make the big difference between having an exacerbation of a condition or being able to self manage on their own. So being able to assess and screen virtually and then recommend at home exercise critically important for you to be able to provide as a chiropractor. The second avenue is tens of millions of people are working from home that have never worked from home before. And I have a feeling that their ergonomic workstations weren't exactly well thought out. So being able to perform virtual ergonomic at home assessments of people's workstations, really, really important. Not only is it good from a productivity standpoint for these people, but it also is being proactive with their health. Right? If they're not able to work because they had poor ergonomics and all of a sudden a tendonitis kicks up, a low back, a neck issue, headaches, chronic headaches kick back up because they're at a workstation, that is just putting them in really, really biomechanically stressed out positions. That's a problem. And you can help people get over that. So two big ways that you can think about telehealth for your at home care recommendations and movement assessments and ergonomic assessments of workstations. Now why is this critically important? Well, if you're like most docs, you have seen your patient volume drop like a rock or you might not even be allowed to get into your practice, depending upon what state you're in. That lack of income and revenue for a lot of docs is a really, really big problem. So being able to provide telehealth services, not only first of all, as we just went through, and helps the people in your community stay well and stay healthy, but it also helps you create income and revenue during these turbulent times, which for a lot of practices, I got a feeling 20 to 40% of practices are gonna be in a really tough situation in a week or two. So staying out in front of it and getting your appointments from telehealth perspective booked now is important so you're not playing catch up later on. So I want you to take that really, really seriously from a pragmatic standpoint. Jason and I with the Smart Chiropractor, we've been doing a ton of telehealth trainings online. So please check out the Smart Chiropractor Facebook page or the evidence based Chiropractor page, because we have been putting out videos each and every day outlining different tips with telehealth. One platform that we found that requires no additional technology requirements is a platform called Doxy Me. D O X Y me D O X Y Me. I'll drop that link in the show Notes notes as well. But Doxy is a really, really great platform that we came across. The design of it, it looks awesome. It seems really, really easy to use. We actually did a live demo and walkthrough of signing up which took like one minute. So please check that out on my YouTube channel on the evidence based chiropractor page if you haven't had the chance to do so yet. So from a technology standpoint, there really should be nothing holding you back. Doxy is free to use even. So get out there and get after it. Now a lot of questions have also become of how do I get paid, right? How do I get paid? And that is gonna be state by state and country by country. Right now it is a fluid situation. There are a lot of states that have enacted parity laws, which means anything you could bill for, AKA examinations, evaluations, what you would be doing via telehealth that you were doing in your practice, that many insurance carriers in many states are now providing parity on that bill if you're doing it at home. So my recommendation is this. I'll drop a link in the show Notes that has a state by state map and guide so you can check your state. But it's not up to the minute, right? So that's gonna give you the basics. That link from EVISIT is gonna give you the basics of where your state was prior to all of this stuff going on, all this craziness. But what you can and should do today is look at the top three insurance carriers for, for your practice, right? If it's a Blue, if it's a Cigna, if it's an Aetna, whatever it might be, look at those top two or three insurance carriers and literally give them a call, call them and ask them, what is your current telehealth guidelines for chiropractors? How do I get paid and how do I code appropriately? That's my recommendation. That hour or two that you spend on the phone might just save your practice. So ultimately calling identifying those top insurance carriers, if you want to be paid by insurance, identifying those top insurance carriers and then giving them quick buzz and asking them, hey, what's going on? And where are you guys at? That is a huge proactive step you can take for your practice and I would recommend doing so. Now on the flip side of that, for many docs, this is Actually an interesting opportunity to increase the cash collections in your practice. So this with virtual visits, with ergonomic assessments, this really tailors into an innovative new realm for your practice. So if you want to, it might be a little stressful to think about adding something on new right now, but the bottom line is your opportunity challenges. Now is the time to innovate in your practice. So think about from a cash perspective, what you would charge as well. So there's no right or wrong with that. I would look back at what you're charging for your typical visits, how you can deliver your care online and then just make your best appropriation and guess so that's innovation is what it comes down to. Innovation is what we all need to keep our practices alive over these coming weeks and potentially maybe even, you know, coming months. And ultimately we've been tripled, quadrupled down on this at the Smart chiropractor as well with our telehealth training, basically. So it can do two things so you can innovate and create income for your practice. So over the last week or so, we've put together really everything you need to get started. Filling up your schedule with telehealth appointments, if you know the Smart chiropractor. We are automated content marketing for docs and we still are that. But over the last week we've been grinding and grinding. While I've seen a lot of talk online, a lot of position papers, we've really been doing the work and we put together telehealth training that includes telehealth Quick Start Guide, including recommendations and best practices. We've included automated promotional email series so you can start booking appointments immediately. So we have that built into Cairo Emails, which is our email solution. So it's completely automated. We get your patient list uploaded and they start getting emails at a cadence of at least twice a week from from now on, announcing and encouraging them to schedule appointments. We have seen a ton of success with this. Early on, we also give a call script for your front desk to call and reach out to people who do you call? How do you position this? We're gonna give you a call script for that. We've also of course included social media graphics. So automated social media graphics for your Facebook page and Instagram pages to promote your new telehealth service. You need to be able to get this out across all of your platforms consistently. One or two posts or one or two emails is not going to do it. Getting started with Doxy Me is one thing. Filling up and booking appointments for People that are actually going to create income for your practice is another. We want to help you with that with the Smart Chiropractor. We've also provided you with some Facebook scripts so you can connect and inspire the people in your audience to take action. Some Facebook scripts and some Facebook posts and additionally we are really, really pumped to announce we worked all weekend long to get together with web exercises. So now if you become a member of the Smart Chiropractor, you'll have a web exercises members that makes it easy to get started providing those digital at home care recommendations. You have full access to web exercises and we are including that in the Smart Chiropractor. We've also decreased the cost and price of membership of the Smart Chiropractor so that you can get started. It includes everything we've already included in the system. Emails, social posts, video scripts, videos done for you. But we've recently added on, literally this week we're adding in all of the telehealth training. We have seen docs literally go from, you know, zero to X appointments filled based upon taking a proactive step. Timing is absolutely everything and you know right now is the time to innovate and create a new source of income for your practice. For many docs you might not have wanted to, but you're kind of gotta be forced into it. For other docs this is an avenue that they probably been maybe you've been playing in the telehealth space and some online and some virtual visits. Now is the time to step on the gas. So we broke down at the top of this episode. Quick recap. What are two ways that you can get out there? Number one, telehealth. Super important from an ergonomic assessment and workstation perspective that can create revenue. Number two is from movement assessments and then recommending at home care. Both absolutely important for the health and well being of your community. Two big ads that you can do as a chiropractor you can feel good about. Create value for those people, create income for your practice, the laws and the parody. Every state's a little bit different. I'll drop the link down below, but also call those big insurance carriers for your patients and identify what their current regulations are. Easiest way to go about it in today's day as we record this today on Sunday. And then the third part is technology Doxy me great free platform. Check it out. And the fourth component of this is once you have all that set then the question is how are you going to get people to book one or two Facebook Posts is not going to do it. One email and a couple phone calls is not going to do it. You need to have a strategic campaign that touches all of the different platforms and quite frankly you need to have it automated to get it done. It's probably not going to get done if you don't have it automated, if you don't have it consistent and you don't have that follow up. That's what we can do for you with the Smart Chiropractor. We've also again included web exercises into this as an unbelievably big value add so that all of your follow up can take place. We're taking care of all of that for you. We dropped the car and we reopened enrollment. We were not on an open enrollment, but we reopened it because we realize we are the solution for thousands of practices out there to stay alive, to thrive and to make it through these challenging times. Getting telehealth going is one thing. Getting the appointments booked, completely different story. That is where we can come in, where we want to help you and where we're providing additional private training in our Facebook group each and every day docs just helping each other out. So please check out the smartchiropractor.com we're ready to help you get your telehealth program up and running and we're ready to help you start to get appointments booked as well. And if you have any questions whatsoever, you know where to find me. Jeff@the evidencebasedchiropractor.com you also can find me online. I've been shooting video live across all the channels each and every day. So I am around. We are here to help. This is a time where we can get through this, but we're going to have to do it together. We're going to have to rely on different people's skill sets and we're going to have to ask for help when we need it. So if I can help you in any way whatsoever, feel free to let me know. Jeff the evidencebasedchiropractor.com Otherwise I hope you have a great week in practice. Whether that's in practice or whether that's in virtual practice. And if you need help booking those appointments and for many docs out there you do, then please reach out to us at the Smart Chiropractor. We can help get you up and going with our automated content to make sure the people in your community know that you're doing telehealth and inspire them to take action and get on the books. So you can create some income and revenue for your practice while giving them the best care possible during these challenging times. Have a great week and I'll talk to you soon.

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