2023 Upper Cervical Practice Survey was our ninth annual survey and we are excited to share the results with you once again! We conduct this survey every year so we can learn current trends for the upper cervical practice and give you the ability to see how your practice compares to industry averages.
A big THANK YOU to those who participated in this year’s survey!
Table of Contents
This would give the average practice in the survey a patient visit average (PVA) of 35.
This year we are going to break down the survey data by practice growth stage to determine opportunities and challenges at every level of practice growth.
We at UCM Practice Growth Systems we have identified 8 different stages of practice growth:
Starting an Upper Cervical Practice (practice growth stage 0)
Practice Growth Stages
In the 2023 Upper Cervical Practice Survey we had Doctors from practice growth stage 1-5 so we're going to specifically focus in on those practice growth stages below (we did not have any doctors with 3 locations in the survey).
We will talk about the specific challenges and opportunities we have identified from the survey data for the doctors in each of the different growth stages.
Wherever you are in your practice we recommend going to that stage below and reading about how you can most effectively thrive in your current practice situation.
The doctors in the 2023 Upper Cervical Practice Survey from practice growth stage one represented doctors from all upper cervical techniques and experience levels. A majority of the doctors (53%) in this practice growth stage have been in practice for five years or less.
Ideally, an upper cervical practice should only be in this practice growth stage during the first few years of practice. However, 17% of the doctors in this year's survey who were in practice growth stage one have been in practice for more than 20 years.
In the next two sections we are going to take a look at the different kinds of practices from practice growth stage one. So if you are in your first five years in practice please focus in on the section below. If you have been in practice for six years or longer and are still collecting less than $20,000 per month go to the section below that.
If you are new in practice and are in practice growth stage one here are some things you can learn from the 2023 upper cervical practice survey results.
55% of the new practices from the 2023 upper cervical practice survey in this practice growth stage were not charging enough for their individual visits compared to the survey average of $77.
If you are new in practice this is the standard. You are starting a new upper cervical chiropractic practice in 2024 from day one you should be charging $80 or more per visit depending on your location. You are providing a high-value and specialized service and should be compensated appropriately.
55% of the new practices from the 2023 upper cervical practice survey also had a below average care plan. The average care plan in the total survey was $1800. 11% of the new practices were not using care plans at all. Another 11% had a care plan that was less than $1000. The remaining 33% had a care plan that was less than $1800. Again if you are starting a new practice your upper cervical chiropractic care plan should be around $1800.
If you are not at that level then you either need to provide your patients with a longer care plan, increase your visit costs, make sure you are charging for everything that you're doing including all progress exams and imaging or all three.
22% of the new doctors had an insurance practice. 55% had a 100% cash practice.
We highly recommend cash practices for upper cervical specialists as it will allow you to provide the best care for your patients and not have to depend on the insurance company to make the best decisions for your patient's health.
55% of the new practices in the 2023 upper cervical practice survey reported their biggest challenge in practice was obtaining enough new patients.
The new patient problem continues to be the most common challenge associated with upper cervical chiropractic practices. If you need more new patients we can help! Over the past 10 years, we have helped our clients generate over 100,000 new patients for their practices. If this is what you believe is holding you back schedule some time to talk with us.
If you have been in practice for six years or more and are in practice growth stage one (collecting less than $20,000 per month) here are some things you can learn from the 2023 upper cervical practice survey results.
Marketing may be a major factor in the lack of growth of many of these practices. 37% of them did not do any external marketing in 2023 and 12% did not do any marketing at all.
Another factor in the lack of growth of these practices may be an issue with their overhead. 25% of these practices had an associate. There is no reason why a practice that is collecting less than $20,000 per month should have an associate. In fact, we don't recommend adding an associate to your practice until you are collecting at least at $35,000 per month in average collections with a 50% overhead.
Another issue for these doctors as well is a lack of a team. 37% of these doctors from our 2023 upper cervical practice survey had no employees. This is a mistake. It is a common reason for doctors to stay in this stage longer than they should. It is a classic stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime strategy that keeps practices small and limits their ability to help as many people in their community as they could. In the past 20 years, I have never seen a practice grow beyond $20-30K/mo without an employee.
If you want to grow you need to hire a chiropractic assistant (CA). If you don't know what to do I highly recommend our CA Hiring and Training Made Easy course.
Doctors in this category also had major issues with their pricing. This may be the main problem they have. If you don't value what you do you are not able to charge appropriately for it. 87% of the doctors in this category were charging less than the $77 average. 37% were charging some of the lowest amounts of anyone in the 2023 upper cervical practice survey at about $50 per visit. They also were not charging enough for their care plans. 100% of them either did not use care plans or used a care plan that was significantly less than the industry average of $1800.
The doctors in the 2023 Upper Cervical Practice Survey from practice growth stage two represented doctors from all upper cervical techniques and experience levels. A majority of the doctors in the survey (54%) are in practice growth stage two (collecting more than $20,000 per month without an associate). A large majority of the doctors (89%) at this stage have been in practice for six years or more.
Below we are going to break the doctors from practice growth stage two into two different categories. One is doctors who are collecting between $20,000 per month and $35,000 per month without an associate. The other category is doctors who are collecting more than $35,000 per month without an associate.
Here are some observations from doctors from the 2023 upper cervical practice survey who are collecting between $20,000-$35,000 per month without an associate.
Doctors who have been in practice less than 10 years and are in this stage of growth were the majority (64%) of the solo practices collecting between 20K-35K. These doctors were doing a lot of things right to help them grow to this stage.
40% of the doctors in practice growth stage two from the 2023 upper cervical practice survey are collecting $35,000 per month or more but have not hired an associate yet. This is a major problem with our profession. 77% of all the doctors in our survey this year were in solo practice. If more doctors in this practice growth stage took the time to hire an associate and train them effectively upper cervical would grow.
But for nine years in a row about three out of every four upper cervical practices are solo practices and as long as that continues to stay that way growth will be limited.
21% of the total doctors who completed the 2023 upper cervical practice survey have a practice that has the capacity to hire an associate but have not hired one yet. Hopefully this is the year that all of these doctors take this next step. If you are unsure how to make this happen in your practice successfully watch our recent webinar called 5 Boxes You Must Check before Hiring Your 1st Associate.
The doctors in the 2023 Upper Cervical Practice Survey from practice growth stage 3 represented doctors from all upper cervical techniques but 100% of the doctors have been in practice for at least 6 years. Doctors in this category from the survey are collecting between $35,000 and $80,000 per month.
A majority of these doctors are following best practices including:
But they also have struggles with pricing including:
The doctors in the 2023 Upper Cervical Practice Survey from practice growth stage 4 represented doctors from different upper cervical techniques but 100% of the doctors have been in practice for at least 11 years. Doctors in this category from the survey are collecting between $100,000 and $125,000 per month.
A majority of these doctors are following best practices including:
The major challenge of these practices from the 2023 Upper Cervical Practice Survey is overhead. 100% of them listed this as their biggest challenge of 2023. This can certainly be an issue as your practice grows and you add more doctors and more staff. It is important to always try to maintain a 50% overhead in an upper cervical practice and to not hire doctors too quickly.
We recommend hiring your first associate at about $35,000 per month in collections with a 50% overhead and then hiring your second associate at about $70,000 per month with a 50% overhead and the third associate at $105,000 per month with a 50% overhead. A fourth associate can be added at $140,000 per month with a 50% overhead give you have the capacity in your office space. It may be that these practices added too many doctors to their practices too quickly.
The doctors in the 2023 Upper Cervical Practice Survey from practice growth stage 5 represented doctors from different upper cervical techniques but 100% of the doctors have been in practice for at least 11 years. Doctors in this category from the survey are collecting between $150,000 and $200,000 per month with two locations.
A majority of these doctors are following best practices including:
67% of the doctors in practice growth stage 5 with two locations who completed the 2023 upper cervical practice survey were charging below the survey average of $77 per visit.
Regardless of your practice growth stage a major issue from the 2023 Upper Cervical Practice Survey is under charging for upper cervical chiropractic both on an individual visit basis and also in a care plan. If you are not charging at least $77 per visit and your care plan is not at least $1800 then we highly recommend increasing your pricing for 2024...you and your care are worth it!
If you want some help growing your upper cervical practice in 2024 we highly recommend scheduling a practice growth acceleration session with our team.
Go team upper cervical!
