As 2023 approaches, we received a few questions from chiropractors asking Dr. Jay about his 2023 predictions. We decided to answer all the questions in a live session with Dr. Jay.
Q1: What trends did you notice in the chiropractic industry this year?
What I noticed in 2022,
speaking around the country and visiting our customers is that the practiced volumes were down this year. 2021 was a really strong year for a lot of chiropractors. The conversations that I was having with our customers and also with other people in my mastermind groups is that volume was down, the new patient acquisition was down, total volume was down, and revenue was down. You have to find creative ways to help change that. You’ve gotta find ways to drive more value for the consumers and the communities that we’re serving.
The other trend that I noticed is staffing challenges. Staffing challenges probably were harder than ever this past year. Unemployment was really low this past year.
I believe a positive trend that I’ve seen, Is greater Insurance company scrutiny. I’ve seen lots and lots of articles around insurance companies essentially getting caught for fraud. What we’re seeing is greater insurance companies’ scrutiny.
Q2: What is the most inconsistent thing you’ve noticed providers doing in 2022?
think the most inconsistent thing I’ve noticed providers doing is being consistently inconsistent.
When I’m consulting with our clients and talking about the importance of metrics, KPIs, and data there’s still a huge gap in terms of where most chiropractors are and where they really need to be. We’re helping to close that gap. Chiropractors need to be more consistent with setting appropriate smart goals. They need to be more consistent with identifying what those key performance indicators are, and what the driving factors are, what the leading metrics are for those KPIs.
And then, and then I think the other really inconsistent thing that I, I’m seeing providers continue to do is their one-on-ones and their, and their regular staff meetings, You know me, I’m very consistent with my one-on-ones. The more communication that we have with our team, the more we understand where they’re at and the more we can support them.
Set appropriate goals, understand your KPIs and your metrics, and please have regular one-on-ones and weekly meetings with your team.
Q3: Top innovation in 2022
The advent of big data and how we’re using big data and dashboards in our practices is making a significant difference for us in understanding how insurance companies are behaving. Big data, is a really important innovation for the chiropractic profession in 2022.
Another innovation that we’re leveraging a lot in our practices is a platform called SEMrush it helps us identify what people are searching for, and what answers they’re looking for. It helps us really shape our content marketing so that we can really support both our patients on the Kaizo Health side and our customers on the Kaizenovate side.
The third interesting innovation that just came across my desk in the last several weeks is AI chats. There’s a platform called ChatGPT. it’s funny I was talking to folks in my accountability group about it, and then Brad and I were taping one of our podcasts and he brought it up and it was just super interesting that this is starting to show up on people’s radar. I played with it a little bit the other day and I thought it was interesting. In fact, I put the question in the search bar “what is the most appropriate treatment for low back? And it came back with “the most appropriate treatment is physical therapy and exercise.” It didn’t include chiropractic or spinal manipulation, and it’s supposed to learn over time and I was like, wrong answer!
Q4: Who do you need or not need in 2023?
I think first and foremost as it relates to team retention, it is all about having a recruiting strategy. If you’ve been on my webinars this year, you’ve seen me talk about it several times. (This is your chance to get the full 2022 CEF Advanced course for free if you book a free Kanvas App Demo before January 1st)
Each one of our positions is actually posted. For all of our companies, for all of our positions, we’re getting applicants that come in every single day. Why is that important? Because when someone decides to leave, you now have a pipeline of candidates that you can talk to. Some people are afraid and don’t want to do that because then people are gonna think they will be replaced. In fact, your best people want you to be recruiting because they want to work with the best people. So your A players are like, Let’s bring on the best possible people on this team.
who do you need and not need?
Who you need is the person who aligns with your core values and your mission. When you do your interviewing process, you need to interview for behavior and values. When it comes to the types of positions it is very clinic-independent. Most of you probably know this, and some of you may not, but we don’t have front desk CAs anymore. I’m not gonna have somebody sitting at the front desk on their phone half the time. What we did is we centralized all of our operations. So we’ve got people literally remotely all over the United States, Colorado, South Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. man mans in Pennsylvania.
You need to make sure that you’ve got a recruiting strategy, you’re interviewing for behaviors and values, and you’re hiring the right people and they’re in the right seat, doing the right work in the right way at the right time.
Q5: What are your 2023 predictions for the chiropractic industry?
Economic growth is going to slow but we may not actually head into a recession. Growth will slow and that’s gonna lead us to the second part of this that I’ve seen consistently across the board when I’ve done my research, which is the labor market’s gonna shift. There’s gonna be a bounce back. There’s gonna be probably a bit more unemployment than there is right now. You saw what some of these large technology companies are doing, Facebook, Twitter, they’ve laid off a lot of people and I think that’s probably going to continue, especially as economic growth slows.
Economic growth is gonna slow and we’re gonna have more choices as it relates to the labor market, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen in the first quarter, probably gonna be more like Q2, Q3.
Regarding the health industry, I strongly believe that patients are expecting a digital health experience. Now, I say that as a tech entrepreneur. I say that as a person who builds digital technology to engage patients, but I’ve also done a ton of research on this. One of the challenges and one of the reasons why we experienced a bit slower growth in chiropractic practices this year is that sometimes it’s just hard to get to the chiropractor. So how do we provide them with a digital experience where we can stay connected to them and when they need to come in? And the answer is through technology.
Q6: 2023 new technologies?
I’ve done a lot of research on this as well as it relates to our own product and just really understanding what the health tech landscape is gonna look like in 2023, and I think there’s probably not anything that’s going to be new.
The technologies that we currently have are probably going to be more widely utilized. For instance, chiropractors, a digital health app for patients and providers. Blockchain is an important development that started seven or eight years ago still not been completely adopted in the healthcare space. However, providing better security and transparency and eliminating the middleman, is what blockchain is designed for. I believe we’re going to see greater adoption of blockchain. We definitely going to continue to see more gamification.
We are big believers in gamification because we have seen the scientific literature and we have seen it in our own products and how it works to drive better patient behaviors.
Lastly, big data. Doctors are going to understand better how to use big data to make better decisions and to fight back against systemic issues in the chiropractic profession, whether it’s regulatory or whether it’s reimbursement. We are gonna have access to information that we’ve never had before, and that’s gonna help us win these battles that we’re constantly fighting.
