Never again pay for a “Discount Program”

Dr. Michael BucknellChiropractic, Liberation NewsletterLeave a Comment

If you’ve been in recently you’re already aware, but for those who haven’t we’ve got great news to share. Moving forward you do NOT need to sign up for the $49 ChiroHealth USA program in order to get membership discount rates as we’ve moved to a new program called Patient Options DMCO to achieve the same purpose. Let me give you a little background here so you really see what’s going on.

In the past, like back 20 years when I first began practice it was commonplace for doctors to offer patients a “cash discount” when they did not have insurance. Of course as you all know, most people that don’t have insurance don’t have it because they can’t afford it. So you remember when Barrack Obama was president that his major push was to have “every American citizen have health insurance”. What that really meant was “we’re going to force every American to buy health insurance rather they can afford it or not.” In a closed door meeting with the BIG health insurers, most likely attended by some BIG Pharma executives as well, they conceived their plan which would ensure people had to buy insurance. While they built the “online marketplace” for what they said would be affordable coverage, they also placed tax penalties on anyone who did not have insurance. But the big move in this conversation is, they told doctors that “it’s unfair to health insurers to be charged full price for services while patients are given a lower price”. Therefore, they made it a massive monetary offense to doctors every time you were found to offer a “dual fee schedule”. This meant naturally, no more cash discounts. If you can’t afford care, “too bad go buy insurance!” The ultimate outcome of this unfolded is what could be expected; rising deductibles and less coverage with patients often seeing deductibles from $5,000-$10,000 even though they can hardly afford premiums. Those “behind closed doors” participants on the other hand, they’re the real winners here. Surprise surprise!

Luckily doctors are clever and where there’s a will there’s a way. So within the code it was found that if you are a member of a “medical discount program” then you could receive that program discounted fees for services much like a Costco membership. Out of that was born programs like ChiroHealth USA. The problem is, doctors had to have patients pay to join programs even if they only wanted to come a few visits for a problem. Other programs far cheaper than insurance also came out like Medishare allowing people to buy into health sharing programs in order to avoid tax penalties.

Out of the ethical concerns of patients having to “buy in” to discounted care, a new program came to be called Patient Options DMCO which operates instead of the individual patient signing up for the program the clinic itself signs up after which all patients that become part of that practice can enroll in order to be a member at no charge. No matter how many patients are enrolled, the cost stays the same so it’s a big win for our patients.

So if you haven’t been in for a while, now is the time! You won’t have to sign up for an extra $49 program, and if it’s been under two years you can jump right back in getting adjusted. If it’s been longer than two years you would be required to consult with the doctor first to consider your situation. Of course if you are lucky enough to have insurance that isn’t costing you thousands of dollars a month, you might have Chiropractic coverage anyways. We’ll be happy to verify your benefits for you, simply call or text us at 251-607-0040 and we’ll answer all your questions. Hope to see you soon!

Dr. Mike Bucknell

About Dr. Michael Bucknell

Doctor Bucknell is a licensed and board certified Doctor of Chiropractic, well-known wellness expert on radio and TV, accomplished author, patent-holding inventor, and entrepreneur. He is extension faculty of Life University, served as the USA Judo, Wrestling, and Weightlifting team's Wellness Advisor and Team Doctor, and NBC Local 15 Gulf Coast's correspondent at the 2012 London Olympics.