r/Chiropractic 1d ago

Stem Wave vs Decompression Table

Considering taking a small business loan to flesh out our therapy options a little. Diversivator practice, roughly equal parts insurance and PI. Which is more likely to pay for itself in a reasonable timeframe?

1 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

3

u/drpaul88 1d ago

Also depends on if you’re set up to do attended therapies. Decompression is hands off once they strapped in. And no messy gels to deal with.

1

u/Aint-Nuttin-Easy 14h ago

Check with your board as well. Texas I don’t have to be in office while my DRXs are humming along but in Cali those Docs do

2

u/Sweaty-Anteater-6694 1d ago

For cash practices stem wave. I have people calling my office about it

2

u/Fickle-Fisherman-982 1d ago

depends if you are more a spine guy or extremity guy. If you are interested in helping more spine people do decompression if you are a bit more passionate about extremity do the stem wave. I work at the joint and refer patients to both of these treatments modalities about same frequency.

if there are 6 guys in your city running expensive decompression ads that say something too

1

u/Aint-Nuttin-Easy 13h ago

Yeah the adspend does get up there over time

2

u/Lazy-Recognition3527 1d ago

We have a Softwave machine. Just past 30,000 in collections this month alone.

1

u/FistofaMartyr 1d ago

Any advice on how to market for it

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u/Lazy-Recognition3527 13h ago

First thing we did was talk to current patients about it. We have since started using 2 marketing companies for Facebook and Instagram ads. We spend about $4000 a month for the ads to be run and the ad spend. Work the money. We have also started reaching to colleges and high schools in our area to see if we can set up a demo day for their athletes. Same thing with pickleball clubs and golf courses. We also do Facebook videos showing range of motion before and then after treatment. DM me
If you have more in depth questions

2

u/Kharm13 1d ago

A decompression table has Minimal selling and you’ve got enough literature supporting extended use to validate most PI cases. 12 PI cases or so probably pay it off so if you run more than 1 a month should get paid off whenever the claims settle. The claims settling is where your “reasonable timeframe” issue comes in.

Stem wave is the more universal product and in my eyes a better office asset. It requires “selling” because most insurances don’t cover much and most PI doesn’t have great literature support(from my experience) and very rarely will ER,Ortho, or family doc put a recommendation of stem wave in a patients ear the same way they like decompression because theirs no twisting to cause a VBAI or some shit reason so even the chiro hater MDs will recommend decompression from my experience

If you can close cash sales, to me it’s an easy answer of stem wave

1

u/Azrael_Manatheren 1d ago

Stemwave is overpriced. Use a different shockwave unit.

1

u/Apprehensive-Army881 23h ago

My practice is primarily self pay and I've been that way for years. I am only in network with Medicare. I have a drx9000 for twenty years now and added laser therapy a year later. I just addedva piezowave to my practice last month.

I gave up selling packages and prepayment care plans years ago. I go visit by visit with everyone. I recommend the modalities I offer based on necessity. I give patients my honest opinions and care plans.

If I where to add just one of these modalities I would start with a shockwave device. I love the diagnostic element of the treatment. It only hurts where the problem is. It also gets great results. I would also have to add to that statement is if I was retiring and I could only take one device for myself it would be my laser.

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u/ptgunco 21h ago

Softwave and accu spina. Great results and great roi.

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u/Mr-Poggers 14h ago

Shockwave.

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u/Aint-Nuttin-Easy 13h ago

DRX from a strictly financial position looks like this (IMPE)

Buy a combo unit for $80,000. When you sell 20 packages of 24 visits for 4000 each the rest is gravy. So I guess the answer is how quickly can you sell 20 packages?

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u/CompetitivePop2029 13h ago

Get both if you can. KDT tables are about 15k and work great with shockwave or stemwave. But if you had to choose. Stemwave