Dear Bill,

How can I convert more patients to wellness care? Regardless of what I say and do my colleagues seem to have a better conversion rate. Am I missing something?

It’s tempting to imagine that if you were able to recreate the circumstances that caused the penny to drop for you, that patients would similarly get the big idea.

That’s not necessarily so.

Inspiring symptomatic relief patients to embrace wellness care is an honorable goal. Because such care may help…

• Optimize the spine and nervous system
• Avoid the return of the original problem
• Catch new problems before they worsen
• Better accommodate the stresses of life
• Prevent future issues from developing

Naturally, by offering true health in this way, insurance carriers have little interest. So, at the very moment patients are feeling better, and the reason for originally consulting your practice has been symptomatically resolved, you’re asking patients to reach into their pocket or purse to pay your full fee.

If your colleagues are practicing in a more affluent area they may be seeing greater numbers of patients converting to wellness care.

Challenge #1: Nonsymptomatic chiropractic care may be seen as a luxury purchase.

But that’s only part of the headwind you may be encountering.

Regardless of income, each of us commit our resources of time, energy, and money to things we value. If we value our appearance, we spend money on the latest fashions. If we value our family, we invest our time in deepening our connection. If we value the creativity offered by our HO model railroading, we spend our time in the basement.

In other words, if patients place a higher value on their nails, eating out, a luxury automobile, or private school for the kids, than the value they place on their health, they may show polite interest in your wellness overtures, but have little interest in investing their time and money for nonsymptomatic visits to your practice.

Even dentists find it difficult to get more than a third of their patients to regularly floss—and that’s with constant begging and shaming. This supportive-preventative-wellness care issue isn’t a chiropractic problem, but rather a reflection of human nature.

Challenge #2: Wellness care is for those seeking better health, not merely pain relief.

Yet, many chiropractors share the belief that there is something they could say or do that will compel patients to embrace wellness care.

Imagining that you could persuade, guilt, or nag patients into reprioritizing their values is a tough assignment—even when justified as being in the patient’s best interests.

You simply don’t wield that kind of influence.

Yes, values have been known to change. But it often requires a near death experience, divorce, retirement, death of a loved one, losing one’s job, or some other major life disruption. A snappy report of findings, scary X-rays, or your rational argument simply don’t meet the threshold necessary to produce such change.

This powerlessness is compounded by the widespread patient belief that with the resolution of their symptoms, you “fixed” their spine. They imagine their spinal problem as something like a cut or an infection. Your “prescription” of three-times-a-week adjustments restored their spine to its former pristine (nonsymptomatic) condition. Thank you!

Challenge #3: Wellness care is unnecessary because the problem has been fixed.

Even with these rather formidable challenges, all is not lost. If you take a longer, even eternal look at your patient relationships there are some things that hold the promise of improving the uptake of wellness care.

Problem is, it may take years to manifest. Do you have that much patience? Can you persevere knowing the payoff, should it even come, could be years down the road?

I hope so. New possibilities emerge by embracing a longer timeline:

1. Introduce patients to the idea that there five ways patients in your practice use chiropractic. How far they take their care is always up to them. You’re simply here to help them obtain their health goals, not yours. (Even if it’s merely the sparsest relief care.)

2. Accept that few patients will embrace wellness care on their first exposure to it. They may need to start and stop care many times before seeing the wisdom of ongoing care—and maybe not even then. Don’t write off them off so quickly. (The allopathic mindset runs deep.)

3. If a patient’s growth plates are long gone, make sure they understand they have a problem that can be managed, but is rarely permanently fixed. Think of ongoing chiropractic care as something akin to the brushing and flossing that support optimum oral health.

4. Make sure patients feel emotionally safe to announce their last visit. It’s the best way to assure they’ll return when their symptoms do, rather than going down the street to another chiropractor or trying some other solution. (“I tried chiropractic but it didn’t work/last.”)

5. Keep in touch with inactives. Not to annoy them with overtures to return for care, but to share information, maintain top-of-mind awareness, and demonstrate that you consider them part of your practice even though they’re in a dormant stage of their care.

These strategies require that you trust patients. It means acknowledging that patients always show up in your practice for their reasons, not yours—even if it’s for initial intensive care or wellness care.

Naturally, suggest the value of post symptomatic care. But not so passionately that it makes patients feel inferior if they don’t share your vision or values.

There’s another strategy to consider, albeit even more difficult. But it may produce a greater percentage of patients interested in wellness: target your practice promotional efforts, internal seminars, and outside speaking events to appeal to those who seek better health.

These are people who may be…

• Using Fitbits, Oarings, and other wearables
• Members of the local gym, Pilates, or yoga studios
• Buying organic produce and grass-fed meats
• Purchasing grocery store multi-vitamins
• Regular flossers who are also mercury-free

They value their health and invest their resources in an effort to achieve and maintain it. Problem is, they think of you as a back doctor. And since they don’t have back problems, you’re not on their radar screen.

Which makes having a wellness practice a marketing problem, not a procedural or patient communication problem.

While not an insurmountable problem, it requires more than promising pain relief on your website and being on all the insurance lists.

And don’t overlook that you may need a better way of proving to yourself that you’re making a difference, since you won’t be seeing improvements on some subjective pain scale. In Wellness Care Land, symptoms are few and far between. That’s not what it’s about. Are you okay with patients loving your care without seeing dramatic, symptomatic improvement?

So yes, there are things you can say or do to increase the number of patients who embrace wellness care. But they rarely produce quick results. And they necessitate promotional investments, outreach efforts, and sometimes a change in identity that many are reluctant or find difficult to embrace.

Hope that helps.


Ask Bill your question.

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