Good Health & Wellness for Life

A doctor once told me this great piece of wisdom: “Don’t set any office hours you don’t want to keep forever.”

It’s tempting when you start up to open weekends, nights, early mornings – anything that will get new patients in the door. Although offering this flexibility to your clients seems like a good idea, it presents a few challenges:

It’s hard on you
Working all those hours is a lot of…well, work. It means you’re seeing patients all the time (if your practice is booked solid), or you’re at the office all the time, but not generating revenue. If you’ve got friends or a family – hell, even if you’ve got a parakeet – it becomes draining. You have no life. And if, like most CAM practitioners, you promote life balance as a means of creating health, then you’re not practicing what you preach.

Your patients will expect it forever
Once Jack gets used to coming Wednesday evenings, it’s going to be harder to talk him out of that when you decide you’ve had enough of working nights.

You attract different types of patients
Offering outrageous office hours may attract patients you don’t want in the long run. Patients who absolutely will not compromise their schedule to see you tend to be less inclined to make the changes required to improve their health. Just as with pro-bono work (more on that another day), they have less invested in the process, and just don’t have the same level of success with their health.

It’s not professional
As always, I promote professionalism first and foremost in your business. It helps to raise the profile and integrity of the CAM industry. Seeing a client “anytime they want” is not standard professional behavior. Remember, you’re not running a 7-11, you’re running a health care business. (It's not the convenience stores aren't professional, it's that each industry has a different set of standards by which customers and colleagues judge professionalism.)

So what hours should you set? If you’ve got lots of competition, then you may need to set a wider range. And examine your practice vision. If part of your vision is to provide after hours health care for people who can’t take time off work, then you’ll have to set your hours based on that niche offering.

Generally, for startups I recommend one early morning, and one evening to allow reasonable flexibility for you and your clients. Add a Saturday if you like, but only if you don’t mind Saturdays.

Remember – you’re a professional, and it’s your business. Be generous, but smart, with your time, and remain confident that if you’re offering something of value, people will want your service regardless of when you offer it...

It’s very common for alternative health care practitioners to work on a “cash or check” only basis. There are several compelling reasons to consider other options.

The usual resistance to accepting Visa, Mastercard and the like is the cost. You pay a monthly fee for the account, plus a percentage of the transaction. For the new CAM grad, or struggling startup, (or anyone, really) every outgoing dollar hurts, and it’s easy to put the credit/debit issue on hold for “another day”.

Here’s why you should accept them from day one:

People will come more often

The credit card industry thrives for a reason. People need credit so they can access goods and services when they need them, and nowhere is this more critical than in alternative health care. Health care is often an urgent need, and alternative health care is often an out-of-pocket expense.

If you don’t accept credit cards, you may be forcing people to take their acute health concerns elsewhere. If they simply MUST have treatment, they’ll have to go to someone who will offer them payment convenience. And even if you allow people in your practice to run an account, your clients may be too shy to choose that option. Most people are very reluctant to admit they’re “running a little short”.

Even Patients With Insurance or Benefits Need Credit
Unless you’re doing the insurance paperwork on your client’s behalf, most of the time they’ll pay you, and then be reimbursed by their employer, insurer, etc. However, most people are a paycheck or two away from poverty all the time. That means they need credit in order to get the service now, and then collect the money later. If you don’t accept credit cards, the reality is even those people with health coverage may not be able to afford to see you.

You get paid instantly
It takes about 30 seconds at the end of the business day to transfer all the money collected that day in debit and credit payments directly into your bank account. No deposit forms, no drive to the bank, no waiting in line. It’s a direct funnel from your client to your bank account. Calculate how much time you or your staff spend in these banking related activities, and you’ll find that a 3-5% transaction fee on Visa might start to look a little more attractive.

The money’s good
If you let people run accounts, you have money that’s not earning you interest for months at a time, and you run the additional risk of never seeing the money at all. Swiping a credit card guarantees you get the money.

No bad cheques. No counterfeit cash. These types of transactions are about as close to “real cash” as your alternative health practice can get.

It’s just good service
Adopt this valuable business philosophy: Don’t make it hard for people to pay. If they want to use a debit card, then so be it. The customer knows best. And remember, health care is generally not a “pennies and nickels” business. Most CAM practitioners are billing a decent hourly rate. Your clients will want some payment flexibility in exchange for your premium service.

It’ll pay for Itself
Let’s take an example. Suppose Jane skips an appointment with her Naturopath because she’s a little short on cash. Sure, that transaction might cost you $3-$4 on Mastercard, but if she never comes at all, that’s $100 in lost revenue, which would have paid for the bulk of your credit/debit transactions that month! Which would you prefer, $97 or zero?


CAM Practitioners tell me, “But nobody ever complains that I don’t take credit cards.” It’s true, they don’t complain to you. But they DO complain. They complain to their friends, family, particularly to the practitioner down the street who does take credit cards.

Make sure you accept credit and debit cards. It’ll easily pay for itself every month!