As doctors and staff, we are passionate about what we do, and we feel that we have a calling to provide as
many people as possible with the highest quality natural health care possible. Just as our services are
unique to this region, our financial policies set us apart from traditional chiropractors and mainstream
medicine.

Why We Do Not Accept Insurance Assignment

When clinics bill health insurance companies directly, the doctors have two options: they can accept whatever fee the insurance company deems appropriate, called their ‘maximum allowable fee,’ or they can reject the insurance companies’ maximum allowable fee. When doctors accept these fees, they are often significantly less than the doctors’ billed fee. Many times it can be less than 50%. Because doctors accepting this maximum fee are making half the money or less, they must see two to three times as many patients each day to make the same amount.

The more patients a doctor sees means less face-to-face time with each patient, and hence quality suffers. Traditional medical offices are usually okay with this since they see 30-40 patients per day, while accepting insurance assignment for many insurances and HMOs. However, Dr. Strauchman sees no more than 12 patients per day, or about one per hour. This allows her to spend quality time with her patients to help them find a comprehensive solution to their problem. A spinal manipulation/rehabilitation visit with Dr. Strauchman or Dr. Morningstar typically runs about 25-35 minutes, whereas visits to traditional chiropractors often last only 5-10 minutes. Again, more time is required to achieve a result that lasts much longer.

In general, insurance companies are not focused on any preventive or wellness services. They are heavily invested in the conventional model of health care that too often relies on drugs and surgery. We are committed to the integrative, functional medicine model that addresses the underlying causes of your symptoms with specific spine care, nutrition/hormone therapies and lifestyle recommendations. In today’s healthcare environment, the actual cost for doctors to provide services continues to rise, while the percentage of reasonable fees that insurance payments cover is declining. At the same time, the profits of health insurance companies and the salaries of their top executives continue to rise to record levels.

Ironically, some of our patients complain about their extremely brief and unsatisfactory office visits in other chiropractic and medical practices, while at the same time expressing frustration that we do not accept insurance assignment. Unfortunately, we have found that we cannot do this and still provide the time-intensive, well-researched, expert intensive care that we do.

We do not participate with any insurances. We do not accept HMOs or Medicaid. You are always welcome to submit insurance claims on your own. In such instances we are able to provide you with an insurance superbill statement.

Our centers provide some of the latest treatment options for pain management, spine and posture correction, weight management, and other chronic health conditions. Our goal is help our patients achieve their highest levels of health and vitality possible. We make every effort to work with our patients so that their finances do not get in the way of their needed treatment. After all, everyone deserves to feel as good and as healthy as possible.