Advertising, Fee Splitting, and Business Practice Restrictions
Business-practice questions test whether a chiropractor's marketing and financial arrangements are truthful and do not improperly reward referrals. The focus is public protection, not business success.
Core rules
- Advertising must not be false, deceptive, or misleading. Avoid guarantees of cure, unsupported superiority claims, misleading before-and-after claims, and omissions that could mislead a reasonable patient.
- Represent credentials accurately. Do not imply board certification, specialty status, or hospital affiliation that you do not hold.
- Fee splitting and referral payments are restricted. A chiropractor should not pay or receive a commission, rebate, or other inducement for referring patients, and should not divide fees with an unlicensed person in a way that rewards patient referrals.
- Discounts and coupons may be used if the advertised price is honored, limitations are disclosed, and the arrangement is not a disguised referral kickback.
- Business arrangements should not compromise clinical judgment or patient choice. Avoid ownership or management terms that give a non-licensee control over clinical care.
Worked example
A DC advertises a "new-patient evaluation for $49." The ad discloses that imaging and treatment are extra. The clinic pays a marketer a fixed monthly fee, not a percentage of revenue from referred patients. The advertised price is honored. The fixed fee is less problematic than a per-patient commission because it does not reward patient referrals; the ad is acceptable if it is not misleading.
Traps
A truthful-sounding statement can still be misleading if it omits material limits. Percentage-of-collections arrangements tied to referrals require close scrutiny. Do not let a marketing company make clinical claims the DC cannot support. Do not use patient testimonials without valid authorization and accuracy.