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Now, More Than Ever, Professional Dietary Supplement Quality Counts

Practitioner brands must deal with an absence of consensus on the criteria that define optimal quality. “Be prepared to compete on the battlefield of quality,” said nutrition industry consultant Michael D. Levin. Speaking at Holistic Primary Care’s 2017 Practitioner Channel Forum, Mr. Levin said he expects, “increased demand for transparency in all channels, but especially in the practitioner channel.” The quality imperative was a recurring theme throughout the Forum, which

Independent Contractor Physician—Kickback or Compensation?

If you’re a successful physician, chiropractor, acupuncturist, or other licensed healthcare provider, and you want to provide overflow patients to another practitioner you hire, is it a kickback if you pay that second practitioner as an independent contractor? Are payments to an independent contractor physician a kickback? Kickback Basics Let’s review some kickback basics, to start. Stark (or self-referral) arises when the physician refers patients to an entity in which

‘Educating’ is Most Effective Marketing Strategy for Integrative Health Providers

Medical providers, passionate about delivering health care, often cringe at the subject of marketing and advertising. After all, most didn’t invest years of education to learn about business and marketing—they studied to become healers. To most medical professionals, the concept of advertising to secure patients is anathema. Few physicians are taught the necessary business development aspects of growing a sustainable clinic or center during medical school. And getting one’s head

The Rise of Integrative Health and Medicine, image of book cover.

[New e-book] 120 Milestones Mark the “Rise” of Integrative Health and Medicine

FREE E-BOOK CHRONICLES THE FIELD’S CONVERGENCE IN HEALTH CREATION Silver Spring, Maryland: A confluence of multiple streams over five decades has empowered the emergence of integrative health and medicine as the coming model for health care’s future. An outline of the field’s rich history is captured for the first time in “The Rise of Integrative Health and Medicine: The Milestones—1963 to Present.” The beautifully illustrated and designed book of over

Rise: Consumer Demand Drives the Future of Integrative Medicine

I haven’t been blogging much lately because I’ve been working on a powerful new e-book along with my sometimes co-conspirator, Taylor Walsh. The publication is called The Rise of Integrative Health and Medicine: The Milestones—1963 to Present. It features over 120 of the most significant accomplishments in the field during the past 50 years. ‘Rise’, as we have nicknamed the project, features a brilliant introduction by industry historian and Integrator

How to Use Persuasion to Engage Integrative Medicine Customers

When it comes to persuasion, Greek philosopher Aristotle set the gold standard in 350 BCE. Aristotle’s modes of persuasion have stood the test of time, and can be applied to various aspects of your communication efforts today to best engage patients, clients, and prospects. Whether you are creating a talk, essay, or website content, Aristotle’s signature approach remains authentic and powerfully effective, even some 2,000 years later. Aristotle’s rhetorical savvy

Telemedicine Legal Series—Part 2: Licensing Issues

Because telehealth and telemedicine often involve practice across state lines, healthcare practitioners must understand the state laws which allow practice in situations where the healthcare provider is licensed in his or her own state (but not the patient’s). Note: there’s another version of telemedicine that involves a medical doctor in the same state, providing services remotely to underserved populations. This isn’t where the licensing issues arise. In this Series, particularly

7-Part Telemedicine Legal Series—Introduction

Healthcare providers everywhere are looking to expand from a brick-and-mortar practice to one that includes online and mobile patient services. Does this describe you? Broadly speaking, we call online and mobile health ‘telehealth’ or ‘telemedicine’. To keep things understandable, we’ll use these terms interchangeably, unless we’re referencing a specific rule of law that defines the term and applies particular requirements to its practice. The types of clinicians who want to

Why I Write—and Why You Should, Too

I’ve written more in the last five years than the previous two decades combined. This body of work, for FON, exceeds 150 posts on this blog, scores of articles for other outlets, three e-books, and one very personal memoir. In my previous career—publisher of a consumer magazine—I contributed a whopping two articles over 25 years; and they needed a lot of cleaning up. But that was okay, I didn’t fancy

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