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Do Online Coupons for Integrative Medicine Services Violate Stark and Fee-Splitting Laws?

By Michael H. Cohen, JD Many integrative practitioners and online enterprises want to know whether Stark, anti-kickback, and fee-splitting laws are violated by business arrangements that offer online coupons or web-based coupons to customers. Let’s break this question down a bit for analysis. First, Stark self-referral law is on the federal level. We are only interested in federal law if Medicare Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) or another federally funded health care

Opportunities for Academic and Hospital-based Integrative Medicine in a Value-Based World

(Special thanks to Taylor Walsh and John Weeks for their contributions to this article.) A colleague recently asked for an example of an economically sustainable academic medical center fully ‘integrated’ across specialties and service lines. Regrettably, after thinking long and hard, I couldn’t come up with even one fitting that description. However, there do appear to be a few seemingly profitable outlier programs featuring direct-pay models for consults and super

concierge medicine business plan, image of a plan written on a journal

START UP: Writing a Concierge Medicine Practice Business Plan

By Michael Tetreault Have you ever thought about starting a direct-pay medical practice or other variation of a private medical practice? Well, whether you are concerned about the Affordable Care Act, looming Medicare cuts or a board certified physician curious about what the next few years in your practice will look like, there are a few things to consider before investing the time, money and energy to bring your direct-pay

7 Chronic Website Symptoms Hurting Your Integrative Practice: Addressing Root Causes

Today, over 85 percent of patients search online before booking a doctor’s appointment. If your website isn’t fully optimized to drive patient volume, you are losing business. Do you have an established practice with lots of word-of-mouth physician and patient referrals? It’s a certainty these referred prospects will look at your website before committing to see you. Have you opted-out of Medicare and operate a direct-pay practice? All the more

Go Deep, Then Wide: Building Integrative Health Practices

Contrary to this article’s title, entrepreneurs and business managers often do the exact opposite: focusing widely but not deeply enough. That’s a productivity killer. Let me explain. See, when it comes to running a successful clinic we’re mindful of all the big picture details and we’re often jumping around simultaneously from task to task dutifully trying to keep all the balls in motion in order to make steady progress. We

Dean Ornish: Unrelenting Healthcare Disruptor

No one has been a greater force than Dr. Dean Ornish in proving the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of ‘lifestyle over procedures’ for chronic disease. His seminal work, designing whole systems research models and documenting remarkable outcomes—for reversing heart disease and early stage prostate cancer—has been extraordinary. Most impressive has been Ornish’s unwavering determination and skill over three decades to effectively translate scientific findings to practical clinical program models; thereby disrupting

9 Ways to Earn Your Patient’s Lifetime Value

Acquiring patients (and clients) is one thing—and not always so easy—but the holy grail of medical practices and all brands is customer retention, achieved by securing customer loyalty, in turn, driving patient lifetime value. According to Wikipedia, customer lifetime value—what we’ll refer to as patient lifetime value (PLV)—predicts net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. Though extraordinarily important, it’s often overlooked by most integrative and functional

The Best Social Media Networks to Grow Your Integrative Medicine Practice

I am often asked: What are the best social media networks in which to grow an integrative or functional medicine practice and position a brand? And I answer: The ones where your current and prospective patients and clients spend the most time, and… The social media networks that you like the most, and can fit into the daily mix of priorities Then I continue with the why, my own examples,

Disruptive Functional Medicine Innovation Drives Value-Based Future at Cleveland Clinic

By Taylor Walsh and Glenn Sabin “The instinct of every leader is to frame disruption as a threat—even if it constitutes an extraordinary opportunity for growth by reaching more people more affordably. If today’s hospitals set up focused-hospitals to disrupt themselves…the evolution can be profitable rather than painful.” ~Clayton Christensen,The Innovator’s Prescription, 2009¹ Christensen, one of the nation’s leading authorities on disruptive innovation in business, wrote those words at a time after the

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