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medical business development, image of a stethoscope on a magazine.

The Business of Integrative Medicine: What they Don’t Teach You in Medical School and Fellowships

“A direct-pay business model requires entrepreneurial spirit, marketing know-how and willingness to take risks—three traits that many doctors lack.”~Erik Goldman This quote from Holistic Primary Care’s Erik Goldman says it all. I’ve cribbed for talks and workshops presented on building integrative health and medicine businesses and practices and, sometimes, I actually attribute this to Erik! Paying Their Dues A physician tirelessly invests more than a decade of her life devoted

12 Ways to Grow Your Integrative Medicine Practice… Beyond Internet Marketing

I am widely known as the ‘digital’ marketer based on my writings and consulting practice which often focus on customer engagement via online strategies. That’s fair. Yet I also have an extensive background in more traditional forms of media and marketing. And today I’m here to tell you that there are plenty of tried and true methods for building clinic utilization not dependent on the Web or digital marketing. I

Integrative Medicine: Solution to Primary Care Crisis?

Co-authored by Taylor Walsh Reading the striking 80-plus-page report, Meeting the Nation’s Primary Care Needs, led by Dr. Michael S. Goldstein from UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research and John Weeks, executive director of Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC), made clear to me that the tipping point for integrative medicine as the standard of care is nearing. The Goldstein/Weeks report, published by ACCAHC, is responsive to

Of Course Preventive Medicine Will Save Money—But Not the Government’s Current Definition of the Intervention

Sharon Begley’s recent Reuters piece, Think Preventive Medicine Will Save Money? Think Again, brought renewed attention to the seemingly low economic benefits of preventive medicine, as currently defined. New findings are out from Trust for America’s Health’s new report, and their outlined plan “to move from sick care to health care in four years.” Begley’s piece homed in on screenings that have shown positive economic impact, such as education efforts to counsel

How to Improve Your Integrative Medicine Brand Identity

Your brand name and logo are the first things a prospective customer (patient) typically encounters when searching for an integrative healthcare provider. Significant consumer confusion already exists around the terms and descriptors surrounding integrative healthcare. Consequently, you must clearly distinguish your brand identity from your local competitor’s, regardless if you are a small private clinic, hospital system or academic center. Position your center for success by communicating your brand’s value proposition with

PCORI Includes ‘CAM’ in First Funding Announcement

PCORI (Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute) is the independent non-governmental (like Institute of Medicine) entity mandated from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. With over $1 billion dollars in hand to be used exclusively for comparative effectiveness research over the next seven years, the Institute is charged with investigating the “relative health outcomes, clinical effectiveness, and appropriateness” of various medical interventions, products and procedures by assessing existing studies and implementing its

UPDATE: Insurance Coverage for Integrative Healthcare Services in 2014

Section 2706 of the Affordable Care Act prevents health insurance plans from capriciously excluding a range of integrative health practitioners from coverage, based solely on licensure. The law empowers patients to obtain care from any licensed provider in a state for a specific benefit covered through an exchange health plan. Specifically, this includes licensed naturopathic doctors, acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioners, midwives, chiropractic doctors and massage therapists. Recently Integrator Blog publisher-editor John

How to Sell Integrative Healthcare to Corporate America

My last post highlighted the mutual benefit of the delivery of integrative healthcare services for clinics and self-insured employers. This generated a great deal of feedback, mostly from the supply side, including integrative medicine centers wanting to know the best way to approach local self-insured companies. These inquires came from full-service MD-based integrative centers as well as smaller practices across disciplines focused on specific areas such as pain management and

Self-Insured Employers and Integrative Medicine: The Perfect Marriage

Integrative healthcare providers have been well positioned to provide quality corporate wellness programs and executive physicals for some time. Closely connected to this phenomenon, literally, is the largely overlooked fact that more than 100 million Americans today receive their healthcare benefits through self-insured companies. This article describes how integrative medicine can help employees stay healthier and be more productive while reducing their employers’ healthcare costs. Importantly, the increasing uptake of

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