Eric Huntington, DC
Co-Owner Developer of the Chiropractic Business Academy
drhuntington@chirobizacademy.com
INTRODUCTION
How much money should a chiropractor earn? I get asked this question fairly often and in speaking to chiropractors from all over N. America, I realized that there are some basic misunderstandings which can lead chiropractors into confusion on this topic.
The answer sorts out fairly easily once you realize that it is vital to further clarify the question. A “chiropractor” is, of course, someone who has a DC degree—and we probably can assume that if the chiropractor refers to him as a chiropractor, that they have some involvement with the profession. For the purpose of this discussion, that eliminates those people who have a DC degree but work in a completely different field.
DISCUSSION
Within the field of chiropractic, there are those who work outside of private practice, but inside the profession. This would include chiropractic college staff, researchers, and those that own or are employed by companies that supplement chiropractic practice—such as insurance carriers, consulting companies, and chiropractic supply companies. The income of these doctors can vary widely, depending on their position and relative success at what they do. This group comprises a relatively small percentage of chiropractors and so the rest of this article will focus on those chiropractors that are associated with private practice.
The typical categories that most of us consider regarding chiropractors in private practice are “owners” and “associate doctors”. There is naturally a significant divide in the income of owners versus associates for the simple fact that an owner carries the typical risks and responsibilities inherent to running a business. In the end, everyone else can jump ship, except the owner. It’s simply the concept of risk versus reward which drives the income difference.
Amongst owners of chiropractic clinics, there is a very wide range of incomes. This is because some chiropractors choose to wear all (or almost all) the hats in a clinic whereas others delegate duties to staff.
The Chiropractic Executive works on his practice(s) and not in his practice(s). His time is spent developing and improving the clinic(s) which allows for greater expansion and greater income. He is very skilled in administration and the handling of people. For these reasons, the Chiropractic Executive is generally the highest paid of all DCs.
The owner who works in his clinic and has an associate, is often the next highest paid of all chiropractors. This is because there are so many other income generating hats in a chiropractic clinic which need to be worn effectively in order for the clinic to be very profitable. By having an associate, the owner can concentrate on these other key income generating actions such as marketing or report of findings. Those that are able to pass the treating doctor hat and help their associate become successful can be greatly rewarded with time and money.
The next highest income earner is generally the owner chiropractor who wears the doctor hat in the clinic. This is the most common scenario in our profession. Because treating patients is very time consuming, it limits the owner’s ability to grow his income beyond a certain point. This problem has led chiropractors to all sorts of odd solutions—such as doing everything themselves, only accepting cash, unusual insurance billing strategies, limiting patient services to the very minimum, or whatever other time or money saving solution can be imagined. These solutions in and of themselves may not be wrong, but when they are only done because the owner doctor can’t figure out a better solution, they can becomes problematic.
The first tier associate income is generally the doctor who not only treats the patients but also manages the clinic. This is often a satellite location or small operation. This associate usually takes on all the typical responsibilities of running an office, outside of finance and future planning. I see this arrangement more often, but not exclusively, in personal injury or work comp practices. Often, the owner has the relationships with lawyers and simply needs someone else to run each of several locations. The extra income enjoyed by this associate is earned from the managerial responsibilities—and maybe the fact that he has to deal with the typical hassles of some personal injury or work comp cases.
The next level for associate doctors is the “practice builder”. This is the associate who is able to not only treat the patients, but also to generate a flow of new patients into the practice that supports the day to day volume of the clinic. This can be highly desirable to the owner, but also can be highly unstable as this type of associate often decides to leave an open his own clinic.
The next category of associate pay is the doctor who is responsible for patient treatment only. Someone else handles all other aspects of the practice. This is the dream job for most chiropractors, since the vast majority of us go to school because we want to take care of people--and for the typical doctor, that means hands-on care.
The key factor in determining your future is to decide what you want to have. This means everything from how you spend your days, to how much money you make, to the amount of responsibility for others you’d like to shoulder. Deciding what you want to have now, and in the future is the first step.
Next, you’d have to decide what actions you would need to do in order to obtain whatever it is that you’d like to have. This would mean determining the actual activities, when done would eventually lead to those things you want to have. For example, if you want to have several clinics, then you will need to do the actions necessary to achieve it. Most likely, being pinned down at the adjusting table is not the actions that will lead to owning several clinics, as an example.
Lastly, you should choose which of the chiropractor hats described above that you need to be in order to do what you need to do the necessary actions, so you can achieve what you want to have.
For example, if you decide you want to have a million dollars a year of income and go on vacation for one week every month, then you probably can’t be an associate or be the owner of your practice and also treat all the patients.
However, if what you want to have is lots of patients to treat daily, a good income that allows you to support a family, and a place to go to work every day, then you can probably be an owner or associate who treats all the patients.
What you want is exactly right because it’s right for you! The only mistake you can make is wanting to have something, but not doing what you need to do, or being what you need to be, in order to get what you want. Get that all sorted out and you’ll do just fine.
SUMMARY
Every day at the Chiropractic Business Academy, we help doctors sort this out and get them on the path to achieving their goals. In fact, the material in this article is from one of the courses we teach to our clients.
If you’d like more information on these concepts, or help of any kind with your practice, call-- we are here to help you!
The Chiropractic Business Academy teaches workable, time-tested business principles and chiropractic marketing strategies. If you are good at delivering high quality chiropractic service but want to see more patients or have more time off with a staff driven practice, then we can definitely help you!
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