AcuSprout: Acupuncture Podcast

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Are you considering taking insurance to jump start your acupuncture practice? Here are some things to consider that I bet you didn’t learn in school.

Are you a new practitioner and getting ready to launch your clinical practice? Maybe you are not so new, worked for someone else and are now ready to experience the entrepreneurial life. Taking insurance might help you get to financial stability much more quickly…. depending on where you live.

I interview Cortney Nadeau in this episode who owns PDXpert Medical Billing in Portland, Oregon. I learned SO much and am excited to share with you information that we did NOT get in school.

you’ll learn

• Why most billing companies don’t want to work with you.
• What credentialing means and how and where to do it.
• Why you should be familiar with your “scope of practice” and the people who wrote it.
• Why it’s important to belong to your state organization.
• What diagnosis, CPT and E&M codes are.
• Why it’s important to have a non-discriminatory policy for providers in your state’s regulations.
• How to find out if your state has a non-discriminatory policy for providers.
• Lastly, we do a deep dive on our treatment codes. They are time based, but should also be treatment based.

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Schedule your 15 minute bookkeepping consultation here!

Schedule your 15 minute bookkeepping consultation here!

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Proper medical charting is crucial in maintaining accurate and organized records for your acupuncture practice.

ACU-056 This highly requested episode comes on the tails of episode 055 where Megan and I discussed treating multiple patients an hour. As a result of that episode I got a lot of requests to review proper medical charting and specifically what should be in the re-evaluation. Listen in as Megan and I discuss proper medical charting for your acupuncture practice.

you’ll learn

• Why proper charting is SO important. It’s not just about getting paid!
• What the language of medical charting consists of.
• The most important items the need to be in the evaluation and follow ups.
• What should NOT be in the evaluation.
• What S O A P stands for.
• What the heck is OPQRST and how can it help you streamline your interview?
• How to use “life effect” as part of the rating scale. 
• What outcome assessment tools are and how to use them to ensure reimbursement.
• How to use CPT codes properly.
• Why a prognosis is so important and how to frame it.

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Are you ready to level up? Not sure how to transition from 1 room to 2 or 3? This is such a common question I often get from my coaching clients.

How do you treat 2 patients an hour? As a business coach to new practitioners, I get this question SO often! So… I called in my friend Megan who purchased a very busy clinic as a relatively new practitioner and basically started her career treating multiple patients an hour.

We all definitely have our comfort zone as practitioners, but I think it’s important for you to consider getting to two rooms as quickly as possible. It’s more time and financially efficient and oh-so-fun! As new practitioners we often spend way too much time and do way too much per visit in one hour. Running 2 rooms an hour forces you to be efficient with your time and trust your needles to do the work. I promise it works! Listen in as Megan and I share our processes.

today’s guest

MEGAN LINDSEY, DACM, OWNER OF SILVER SAGE ACUPUNCTURE

Megan completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University Northridge before switching gears and coninuing her education at Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a Taoist school with a 38-generation lineage, located in Los Angeles, Ca. She is a Nationally Ceritfied Diploamate of Oriental Medicine and a California Board licensed acupuncturist. After graduating in 2014 she struggled with opening her own clinic and finding her way. After some stops and starts in 2017, she landed on purchasing an acupuncture clinic from a practitioner who was retiring, She has unique insight into the pros, cons and profitability of this route of practice. More recently, she graduated from Pacific College of Health and Science as a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine (DACM).

Megan is a direct and open person who has a knack for creating soft nurturing, aesthetically soul comforting environments. Her space helps patients sink deeply into healing while feeling safe and supported. She advocates for her patients to empower themselves through education and lifestyle changes. Megan practices in a wholesome, raw, heart-centered way. She provides patients with the support and tools they need to gracefully pivot into and through, life’s challenges.

FIND HER HERE:

Instagram: @silversageacupuncture

Website: Silver Sage Acupuncture

you’ll learn

• Megan breaks her treatment down minute by minute to show you how she works.
• I talk about my process when treating 2 patients an hour.
• We discuss some of the systems you need to have in place to streamline the process.
• Did you know that you can actually hold credit card information on file and run all payments at the end of the day to save time?
• How to get new patients scheduled for their whole treatment plan on the first visit.
• How to maximize your face to face time in order to fulfill proper treatment codes if you bill insurance.
• How to chart efficiently and quickly.
• Why treatment style matters if you run two rooms and take insurance.
• How to manage rescheduling and collecting money efficiently.
• How to train your patients and create healthy expectations from day one.

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Acusprout has partnered with the BEST EHR company ever! Find out why everybody LOVES Jane!

in this episode

ACU-054 Welcome to this episode of the AcuSprout podcast where we explore case studies with expert acupuncturists to learn more about the application of acupuncture in clinical practice. In this episode, we have Toby Daly, a licensed acupuncturist and expert in Saam acupuncture, to discuss his approach to treating inflammatory bowel disease using this modality.

today’s guest

DR. TOBY DALY, PHD., LAC.

Toby recieved his undergraduate degree in Food Science from the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. He began studying Chinese medicine in 1997 with Sunim Doam, a Korean monk trained in the Sa'am tradition. He earned his masters degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2002 upon completion of training at the American College of TraditionalChinese Medicine in San Francisco and Chengdu University in China.

During his four years of training in San Francisco, he interned with the prominent acupuncturist Dr. Angela Wu and learned to apply the lofty theories he was studying in school into the pragmatic setting of a busy clinic.

In 2013, he developed the Chinese Nutritional Strategies app to provide digital access to the wealth of Chinese dietary wisdom. In 2016, he completed a PhD in Classical Chinese Medicine under the guidance of 88th generation Daoist priest Jeffery Yuen. In 2021, he developed the Chinese Medical Characters app to enable direct access to foundational Chinese medical terms and concepts. In 2023 he published his first book, An Introduction to Chinese Medicine: A Patient’s Guide to Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Nutrition & More.

He lectures internationally, sharing his 25 years of clinical experience with the Saam tradition.

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you’ll learn

• Toby’s introduction to Sa’am while traveling in India and perchance meeting a Korean wandering monk beats any “entry to the medicine” story I have ever heard!
• We talk a bit about the wandering monks and what their lifestyle looks like.
• Toby presents an acupuncture case study where the patient has severe Irritable Bowel Disease that was unresponsive to western pharmaceutical medications.
• We journey thru this case thru the lens of Sa’am acupuncture which is based on yin/yang, five phases and six confirmations.
• Lastly, Toby discusses his 4 needle selections with a brief description of why he chose them.
• Then we follow up with how the treatment plan went and how his patient is doing now.

resources

• Toby’s new book, An Introduction to Chinese Medicine: A Patient’s Guide to Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Nutrition & More
• Toby has a Chinese medical nutrition app that I used extensively when I was in school. His latest app is Chinese Medical Characters. Check them out here.
• Want to learn more about the DAOM at ACCHS? Contact Phil Settels here, and be sure to put DAOM/AcuSprout in the header.
• Follow AcuSprout on

Explore What Jane Has To Offer!!! Acusprout has partnered with the BEST EHR company ever! Find out why everybody LOVES Jane!

can a new practitioner really purchase a busy clinic and succeed? Yes! And Megan is going to tell you how.

I LOVE when people want to contribute hard earned knowledge to the AcuSprout community! My guest today contacted me because she wanted to share her experience with YOU of purchasing a practice as a BRAND NEW ACUPUNCTURIST. Yes. She. Did.

today’s guest

MEGAN LINDSEY, DACM, OWNER OF SILVER SAGE ACUPUNCTURE

Megan completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University Northridge before switching gears and coninueing her education at Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a Taoist school with a 38-generation lineage, located in Los Angeles, Ca. She is a Nationally Ceritfied Diploamate of Oriental Medicine and a California Board licensed acupuuncturist. After graduating in 2014 she struggleed with opening her own clinic and finding her way. After some stops and starts in 2017, she landed on purchasing an acupuncture clinic from a practitioner who was retiring, She has unique insight into the pros, cons and profitability of this route of practice. More recently, she graduated from Pacific College of Health and Science as a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine (DACM).

Megan is a direct and open person who has a knack for creating soft nurturing, aesthetically soul comforting environments. Her space helps patients sink deeply into healing while feeling safe and supported. She advocates for her patients to empower themselves through education and lifestyle changes. Megan practices in a wholesome, raw, heart-centered way. She provides patients with the support and tools they need to gracefully pivot into and through, life’s challenges.

FIND HER HERE:

Instagram: @silversageacupuncture

Website: Silver Sage Acupuncture

you’ll learn

• Why it’s so important to have a plan as a new practitioner but to keep your options and mind open.
• Many of us are hesitant to purchase a practice because we think the patients might leave. Guess what?! They don’t!
• Megan talks about making dream money her first year. A solo practitioner making over $200k a year? Yes.
• We talk about where the transition of ownership could have been handled differently.
• Megan makes suggestions for a smooth transition into practice.
• How she went from treating 0 patients to over 50 a week.
• We talk about what changes she has made over the years.
• We talk about how she has managed to escape the constant struggle of launching a new practice and how GOOD that feels.

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If you are an Acupuncturist you NEED to know about Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome. The pain level and duration of CRPS is so debilitating that people often take their own lives but this is something we are well equipped to help manage. There are also some pretty important contraindications that we need to take into consideration.

In this episode Anthony Von Der Muhll DAOM, who teaches Orthopedic Acupuncture and Sports Medicine at the Doctoral Program at the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences (ACCHS) introduces us to CRPS. Listen in as he walks us through the case and becomes an integral piece of this patients pain management process.

If you appreciate this episode, be sure to share it with others!

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In this episode……

ACU-051  Today I’m going to talk about the biggest mistakes I see newbies making with regards to patient retention that keeps you from gaining any traction. No matter what type of marketing you do, how much you spend on advertising, If you cannot keep your patients committed to a treatment plan long enough to get well, then you are spinning your wheels. 

Now before I go any further I feel like it’s super important to define patient retention. Patient retention is a practice’s ability to turn new patients into loyal patients. Patient retention is measured as a percentage, which you can calculate by dividing the number of returning patients by the total number of patients for your practice minus the number of new patients. 

The higher your retention rate is, the better it is for your practice. That’s because patient retention and practice profitability are linked.

If you want an average practice then you would shoot for about 48%. Really we are getting ahead of ourselves, because you probably haven’t been in practice long enough to have enough numbers to play this game. 

As a new practitioner the goal is to create a relationship where the patient has recovered or is recovering from their chief complaint, they refer their friends and family to you, and they come back to get treatment as needed. 

The three most important strategies to consider with regards to patient retention are:

1. YOU
2. Removing barriers to entry
3. Having multiple positive touchpoints (or creating a positive patient experience)

BONUS: You’ll want to listen to the end because I am going to give my top 5 secrets to building relationships and retaining patients.

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ACU-050  This is the part two of a case review I did with Henry McCann. We discuss how Henry treats neck and arm pain with Tung Style Acupuncture. If you missed the first part, be sure to check out Episode 49 where we had a brief chat about the importance and differences between the DAOM programs and the DACM programs. We learned about Henry’s path and teachings in Chinese medicine which include teaching extensively in the US as well as abroad. We learn about the history of Master Dung and this system of acupuncture and how it differs from the Tan method.  and lastly, We discuss Henry’s books which you can find in the show notes.

In today’s episode we do a thorough case exploration.

Here is a glimpse of the case. She's a female in her forties and she came in with complaining basically of pain in her upper back and her shoulder that was radiating into her right arm. She has a C-6, C-7 disc herniation and there is pain and numbness going down into the right arm. There's numbness in the fingers.

Upon palpation, Henry determined she was really complaining of pain in the area of the superspinatus. She definitely had trigger points in the, the upper trapezius on basically all on the right side. There was definitely some scaling involvement, some elevator scapula involvement.

Listen in to see how the case unfolds.

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In this episode….

ACU-O49 Today I'm talking with Henry McCann, and we originally recorded this episode to share a case study with you, but what has been happening with my case studies is that they get really, really long, so I'm breaking this one up into two parts.

Be sure to tune in and subscribe so you don’t miss the juicy case presentation in Episode 50. But for now, here is wht you’ll learn:

• Well, first we get to know Henry and his background.
• Next we talk about Master Tung. Who he was and how it came to pass that we are now able to learn this style of Acupuncture
• We touch on the basics of Tung style acupuncture, the type of needling involved as well as the fundamentals of the practice.
• We spend some time talking about challenges that beginners experience and how to progressively work thru learning new systems while practicing the medicine.
• Lastly, Henry share with us a simple marketing tip that works wonders in his clinic.

today’s guest

Henry McCann, DAOM, LAc, Dipl OM (馬爾博 中醫博士)

Dr. McCann is a licensed acupuncturist and doctor of East Asian (Chinese) Medicine with a private practice in Madison, NJ.  

Dr. McCann finished a BA and BM at Oberlin College following which he studied at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan as a Fulbright fellow.  He then attended the oldest college of East Asian Medicine in the United States, the New England School of Acupuncture.  In an effort to further his own clinical training he completed his advanced practice doctoral degree at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine; as part of that degree he interned in the gynecology department of the Chengdu University of Chinese Medicine (Sichuan, China). He completed a certificate in Japanese Psychology with the ToDo Institute in Vermont, and coursework at the PhD level through Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine in China.

In addition to his clinical practice Dr. McCann is committed to bringing East Asian Medicine to a higher level by educating professionals in advanced concepts in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine.  He is an experienced teacher and is a core faculty member for the doctoral degree program at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine where he teaches clinical case study writing, geriatric medicine, and Tung's acupuncture.  He is also on the faculty of the Pacific College of Health and Science in Manhattan teaching the medical classics (Huang Di Nei Jing and Nan Jing), and the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences where he teaches Tung’s acupuncture.  Dr. McCann has taught widely throughout the United States, as well as in Germany, Ireland, Holland, Austria, Indonesia, and Australia. He is a 12th generation lineage holding disciple of Chen Style Taijiquan, a 3rd generation lineage disciple of Hunyuan Chen Style Taijiquan, and a disciple of a Qigong lineage transmitted by Hu Yaozhen that originated with the Daoist Immortal Chen Tuan. Dr. McCann is also ranked as a 5th Duan in Taijiquan by the Chinese Wushu Association (with the rank being awarded in China). The Duan ranking system is similar to the "Dan" black belt ranking of Japanese martial arts (the Chinese system has 9 ranks, with 6th Duan being the highest technical proficiency level awarded).

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resources

• Check out Henry’s

Hey friends. Are you stuck? 

Afraid to open your practice, get a job, go to a networking meeting, learn to play pickle ball, create an instagram reel?

Are you afraid of what your classmates, relatives, future patients, former teachers and your neighbor Bob think of you?

Think about it. If everyone were perfect:

What would comedians talk about?

Would you actually have a job or career?

And here is a tragedy I am not sure I could have gotten thru medical school without. 

The TV show, The Big Bang Theory would never have made it. I mean, this is a whole 13 year run of a show literally based on the imperfections of ALL of its characters. 

Not being perfect makes you interesting.

But before I continue I want you to know that I hear you. And I see you. Because i am you. I can make light of being a perfectionist and talk about how uninterested people really are about what you are doing. That it’s fine and you matter and that you are unique and perfect in all of your imperfections. But that doesn’t really get us to the root of the problem does it?

today’s episode

• I uncover the root of perfectionism.
• Talk about 6 ways to be an imperfect entrepreneur.
• Share 8 steps to create a “whole” practice, not a “perfect” one.

resources

• The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
• Is perfectionism a trauma response? Blog article on caminorecovery.com
• Jane Electronic Medical Records. Use this link to get your first month free!
• Follow AcuSprout on Instagram and Facebook

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Explore What Jane Has To Offer!!!