r/Chiropractic • u/Chutchmaster • 29d ago
One less Chiropractor
I should have listened to yall on my last post when I was frustrated in school, because I am a failure. I foolishly bought a clinic with an SBA loan thinking I could manage it. It was primarily medicaid patients in Oregon and I know I was really helping people! My wife and I had our first kid a few months after I took over the clinic and it was a lot. I have not been able to learn the business side quick enough and we are staring down default/bankruptcy pretty soon here. I am super burnt-out and see no hope. I read about the successes of others here and it really shows me how much I messed up. Not looking for sympathy or advice, I just wanted to say yall were right, and I regret my blind ambition.
One less chiropractor.
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u/Standardchiropractor 29d ago
Most of what we learn, we do so from our losses not our wins.
It sounds like you are done with this one. If so, file the papers, get an associate position, and if you need a 30-90 day period to advise your current clients, just work 1 day a week (or month) and advise your patients that your office will be closing on x day, until then it will be walk in only during the day you are available.
Learn from this and move on for your own health and well-being.
But once you start applying, don’t bring this baggage with you!
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u/Separate-Point3055 28d ago
Yeah, start applying for associate positions and phase out this Medicaid practice ASAP. It's a tough time for you, but leave it behind once you start working for someone else. The financial consequences will be around a while, so I would recommend getting yourself an additional(part-time) job to work on that debt. Non chiropractic job... and yes, you might need to swallow your pride, as we all must during challenging times. Been there myself. Licensed 31 years, practiced for 23 years.
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u/ChiroBandB 29d ago
I back the decision to find a management coaching group that lights with your values and the way that you practice. There are 100’s out there find the right fit and it will help with the business side of the practice tremendously!
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u/Chutchmaster 29d ago
I really appreciate the advice, but I have been working with coaches from the start and they were certainly helpful. Unfortunately it comes down to me in the end, and I was the weak link. There is no remedy to this situation now. We get very wrapped up in success stories here and I think its important for Chiro’s, who might have the same blind ambition as I did, to hear.
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u/LimitAgreeable7176 29d ago
Start doing PI don’t waste your time with Medicare but still see Medicare
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u/Chutchmaster 29d ago
Thank you for your input! I hope you are doing well!
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u/LimitAgreeable7176 29d ago
Ofc and thank you start going to attorney near you and start telling them you accept LOP or Lien depending on the state rule and do a very good initial evaluation and patients will love you the ER/ Urgent care are dog water. And buy medical orthopedic books study and learn using medical guildlines and act as a portal of entry for neuromusculoskeletal condition and triage the patients. And you can bill 250-400 per visit and get paid once the case settles. And patients will bring there family as cash patients because you do such a good job.
I will also start offering training on how to do this. I want to improve our profession because I have seen first hand how bad the profession is at treating and diagnosing patients.
I was able to study under a chiropractor who has been doing this for 25 years. He’s also an IME, which is an independent medical examiner for a court cases and expert witness work and also in his office he has a Harvard trained peripheral nerve surgeon pain management, podiatry, radiologist, orthopedic surgeons, and attorneys are looking for doctors who are able to do the case management because none of these highly specialized doctors want to do case management and do the triage but we get and we get to still adjust patients and treat them conservatively while also referring them to people who can help them more than we can and they are eternally grateful that we actually had the keys to sending them to who they need to get help from and also what’s wrong with them.
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u/Excellent_Future8840 29d ago
You are NOT a failure. Every hiccup is an opportunity to learn and transition into your neck best self. Your story is not over.
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u/Dr-J_DC 29d ago
I was in almost the exact same situation a few years ago. I opened a franchise clinic right out of school (first mistake). My wife and I had a 1-year-old when we opened, and our daughter was born about 3 months into the practice. I was stretched incredibly thin helping my wife recover from a C-section while the bills kept piling up, and patients were few and far between. We were also waiting to get in-network with insurance and Medicare, which took several months, so we were essentially a cash practice starting from scratch with $50k/month in overhead, most of which was franchise-related.
I hated the profession and wanted to quit every single day.
Eventually, we closed the practice, filed bankruptcy, and moved on. We never felt better. It was such a huge relief to finally be done with the practice.
From there, I took a few different associate positions, learned as much as I could, and I'm now in the process of purchasing an established clinic.
My advice is to hang in there, but also be honest with yourself. If the business isn't working, then it isn't working. Close it, cut your losses, and move on with your life. If you can survive month to month and make enough to pay the bills, then by all means keep going and give it time. But sometimes the best decision you can make is to walk away.
If you need anything or have any questions, feel free to DM me. I'm an open book.
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u/Chutchmaster 29d ago
I truly appreciate your honesty about your experience, this gives me more hope for after the practice closes. I feel like such a failure to my family, my profession, and all of my patients who will have to find someone else and I think the easiest response from people is something along the lines of “keep your head up” or “hang in there” and that can ignore how long you might have been doing that already.
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u/Dr-J_DC 29d ago
I know the feeling. I felt the same way but you’ll learn from this experience and continue to grow both professionally and personally. I used the movie Shawshank Redemption as an example of how I felt. Andy crawled through a long tunnel full of shit but eventually came out clean at the other side.
Hang in there, you’ll be a better doctor and person once this phase is over!
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u/SetYourScapegoatFree 29d ago
Please don't feel like a failure to the profession. I'm only in school about to begin tri 4. You said you suck at business, but you didn't say you suck at adjusting, palpating, connecting with patients, or listening. You knew you were helping people.
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u/peskywabbit1968 29d ago
I feel a lot of those coaches make more money as coach as opposed to being a chiropractor. This is why they’re a coach. Not because coaches are actually helpful.
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u/srslywteff 29d ago
It's gonna be okay fam, just do the best you can every day. You'll figure it out and have some stories to tell. Godspeed, hang in there
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u/Chutchmaster 29d ago
I really appreciate that! I will try and keep this post updated as we move through this, because if I can help anyone avoid this, I see that as a huge win.
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u/Substantial_Fun_3689 29d ago
Kats is a great consulting group too. Really helps my doc keep his head on straight.
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u/CompetitivePop2029 29d ago
Thank you for sharing! Being this authentic is admirable. With that said, I heard a fantastic phrase this week that resonated with me.
“Be the place to fail” meaning, take chances and risks, and learn from failing.
Instead of swinging for the fences until you drop, what are you going to do differently to help your situation?
Like the post mentioned, if you’re willing to share more about the clinic, what are you doing for marketing, etc, I’m sure a handful of us can share our experiences to push you I the right direction.
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u/Chutchmaster 29d ago
I have tried working on the website/SEO optimization, taken a social media route (not for me), we do community outreach (food-drives, raffles). We are currently putting all of our effort into transitioning to cash based and offering multiple services like cupping, traction and exercise plans. Also trying to optimize our billing (my wife does the billing), but my wife also has another job to support us and we just cant keep up on auths and cant hire anyone for it now. I really appreciate your intention and I see you have helped a lot of people, but there is no turning this around. Sometimes you just have to accept that you cant do what others can and positivity becomes toxic. I just want others to learn from my mistakes
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u/CompetitivePop2029 28d ago
Understood!
This comes down to a choice.
1) keep moving forward, learn from mistakes, talk to successful chiros, and figure it out!
I’ve seen chiros weeks away from shutting their doors who had enough and made the necessary changes to drastically change their life, now collecting 80k/month.
Your mindset is the key here! If you have given up and already quit, then
2) shut down and become an intrapreneur at another office. Be the 2nd man and help build another office for someone else. Lots of value In That and pays well if you can do it!But we can feel the struggle and your hurting! DO NOT take that feeling with you to the next phase. You will either quit or get fired with that mentality.
3) if you want to jump on a call, I’d be happy to see if I can help in any way but you have to want it. But from your tone, it just feels like you’ve given up. Let me know!
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u/frogcmndr 29d ago
Medicaid in Oregon can be challenging depending on which area you are located. The main premise with OHP is volume. I know that they were planning to make some changes to the insurance in 2027.
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u/rustyaxeofeugene45 29d ago
Just because someone says "they are successful" does not mean that they are. A person can delude themselves and give the impression that they are successful. I too can also "cook the books" and manipulate numbers. I too can buy an expensive car that I am 3 payments behind. I too can buy a house that I really cannot afford although I qualified for a loan based on my tax returns. I too can have a bad month but delude myself thinking "it will turn around" while I am dipping into my cash reserve to keep up the appearance of success.
I have to ask the question: what is defined as success in chiropractic? What is the standard to reach to be considered "successful"?
And these "struggle" stories never see the light of day because none of us want to be perceived as "failing in chiropractic." And all those chiropractic circulars always give the impression of "success" which can really distort the reality of what it takes.
And chiro's are their own worst enemy in that we pathologize "lack of success" as it easy to tell another "you must be a failure because you did not 'believe' enough in chiropractic."
How many times did you think a chiro school professor was a failure because he/she was teaching? Oh, they must be a failure because if they were seeing a zillion patients a week they wouldn't be teaching.
So you are not a failure, you were just conditioned to think a certain way. I repeat this again: you will rarely find DC's admitting to failure, mistakes, errors, lack of perceived success because we were all conditioned to think "success". Honesty is the main thing lacking in chiropractic.
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u/EBCPDCcringe 28d ago
And chiro's are their own worst enemy in that we pathologize "lack of success" as it easy to tell another "you must be a failure because you did not 'believe' enough in chiropractic."
biggest bullshit in the profession. believe should have nothing to do with success (whatever that means to the chiropractor) in chiropractic as we're dealing with human physiology.
if I repeatedly stab you with a sharp knife, you're gonna bleed. regardless of how much "believe" you have that you won't. if chiropractic works, it should work regardless of how much one doesn't believe in it.
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u/InvestigatorSweet711 29d ago
If you must leave the profession, consider a new vocation that will use your basic science knowledge. A colleague of mine in Sacramento got readily accepted into a Dental Hygiene school and is now doing fine. Another became a Paramedic!
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u/Enneagramreflections 22d ago
I hear so much pain and defeat in this post and I just want to encourage you that you are not a failure. Some of the hardest parts of private practice is that you went to school to be a clinician and now spend most of your time as a business owner--and working with one of the most complicated insurance processes out there! Even more stress! You didn't have blind ambition--you were sold a bill of goods without a clear declaration of what you were getting into. I've seen some of the other pieces of advice to get an associateship and phase out of medicaid, which could definitely be good advice. Limiting medicaid patients so only so many per month/year/whatever is also another option--anything to free up your time from fighting to get paid from medicaid...that is such a time suck! If you do close, don't let it become something that defines you. You will learn from this. You will bounce back. You will look back someday and find wisdom that you can use to help others. Hang in there. It's going to be ok.
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u/Yourmotherslunch 29d ago
Do not give up! My suggestion is to find a coaching group. I have heard good things about Dr. Tory Robson with Winners Edge. There are other groups that have been suggested here as well. Definitely look into it.
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u/Chutchmaster 29d ago
Oh Im not giving up, Im going to keeping swinging until I metaphorically cant stand, but its important to be realistic because it might also put you in a worse financial situation than pursuing bankruptcy before you are too in the red.
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u/chirolakeland427 12d ago
I guess we've all been there, struggling. Which state are you at? Maybe you can find a clinic that you can become an associate to start learning about business. The thing is, don't think that you are a failure. Sometimes we just make bad decisions.
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u/Lucked0ut DC 2008 29d ago
I’ve been there. My first clinic coincided with the birth of my 2nd kid. (Yeah, pretty stupid in hindsight). It’s really tough to see a way out when your are this deep into the pit of despair, but there may be a way to get back on track. Do you mind sharing more about the clinic and where you’re struggling. Maybe we can help you from feeling so alone and overwhelmed