a community of practitioners

Rental Rates for treatment room & receptionist

i've been earning commissions for the past 11 years in a chiropractor's office. last week he advised me that he now wants me to pay $3500 rent per month for 3.5 days per week, or $230 per day (8 hour day with lunch break). this seems excessive.

i think i need some comparables and was wondering what others are paying to rent a room in a chiropractor's office with a receptionist. the receptionist takes & returns phone calls, makes reminder calls the day before treatment, receives clients, collects payments and manages the calendar.

please help. thanks.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Janice Paige Honeycutt on January 26, 2013 at 2:33pm

Jeff,

I was working in a chiropractors office, paying at least $2000. a month for 9 days of rental space with office staff, which included all of what you described. I am now out on my own, rent a room in conjunction with another therapist for $20 a day, and I am so much happier. It was taking a tremendous amount of energy to pay the chiro. before I made anything, but many former clients come see me still, and I have many new ones. I loved having instant clientele and the ability to learn so much from working on the type of clients I saw through the Dr's office, but I'm much happier and so are my hands. In retrospect, I feel that I was just another cost center for the Dr., not really appreciated for the co-treatment that his patients got and how well the two complimented each other. I've talked with other Chiro/therapists who worked for wonderful Dr's who saw the value that massage brought to their patients and compensated the therapist well. I think those Dr's are hard to find!

Permalink Reply by Jeff Sims on January 27, 2013 at 3:31am

Thanks for your thoughtful and informative reply Janice. Wow. $2000 for nine days is $222.22 per day. That's almost $230!

Your thoughts on the gross personal happiness factor resonate with me. I have thought about practicing from home. I can rent space like you with other professionals. I've already found a DC less than a block away who is willing to pay a higher commission than what I was earning before (his business plan is different). I drive a '92 Volvo as an example of my low overhead lifestyle. The high fixed cost of rent, or overhead is not worth it to me.

Permalink Reply by Janice Paige Honeycutt on January 27, 2013 at 8:50am

Jeff, I also practice from home along with the rented space and also, like you, have a very simple lifestyle Blackberry Blossom Farm. I'm sure you'll find the right situation for you and best wishes as you go forward with your business. 11 years is a long time, and I'm sure you are having a little anxiety about change, but you obviously have the skills, the business head and certainly the heart to be successful no matter which direction you choose.

Permalink Reply by Michelle Reisinger on April 1, 2013 at 7:12pm

First off there is no such thing as "commission" in the health field. It is called fee splitting and/or kickbacks and is illegal on both state and federal levels. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest maybe the DC has realized the legalities with your current arrangement and to cover his butt, he is now charging a flat room rental rate. He probably came to his rental figure by looking at what he has made off of your services. The problem with that is rent can only be fair market value of the room. Also, rent can't be tied to how many patients are seen nor tied to amount of revenue generated by your services.

I am an independent contractor in a DC office. I am incorporated so I am a completely separate entity. We started with me paying $300.00/month. Then he wanted to fee split for any patients he referred to me. I told him that is both fee splitting and kickbacks and is illegal. He backed down and just paid me my normal fees for each patient I worked on.

Here in Florida, our busy season is just ending. He saw the amount of clients I was seeing and decided to get greedy. He now wants me to give him $10.00 for each person I see, regardless if I see them 1/2 hr or 1 hr. He actually had the nerve to tell me to raise my price by $10.00 and give it to him!

I declined his arrangement and have 1 month to find a new office. I did not remind him about fee splitting legalities. He will be reminded once he is investigated, as I am turning him in. Another therapist is coming to the office to take my place. She has agreed to his terms. I sent an indirect hint that she needed to look into the legalities of the arrangement. If she does not, ignorance of the law means will not protect her from the legal ramifications.

I am on a mission to educate massage therapists about this issue. Please check the laws in your state as there are some variances from state to state, as well as the federal laws. I am so tired of DC's working LMT's to death for pennies on the dollar. Finding out that many are involved in illegal practices gives us ammunition to fight against them. We cant go on a spree turning them all in because the LMT's would end up in trouble as well. But if we all band together armed with LAW, when we seek employment with new DC's, we can eventually turn the tide!

Print up anything you can find about fee splitting/kickbacks, as well as fair market value for rent. Present your findings to him and ask him if yall can figure out an alternative. If he is supplying all the patients, it might be better that he pay you a flat day rate, which of course can't be tied to patients seen or income generated. Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Janice Paige Honeycutt on April 3, 2013 at 4:38pm

Everything Michelle says above is correct. I'm so glad I got out of my situation and have also been an advocate for other therapists to make sure they understand the legalities of their arrangements with Chiropractors. There isn't a lot of info. out there to give therapists a heads-up in the business world of massage on these kinds of issues. I found a wonderful Massage Business course given by Vivian Madison-Mahoney, who will be the key note speaker at The World Massage Festival this year on the Queen Mary. She has on-line courses and holds several in-person ones each year. Check her out for more info. on business and insurance for massage. I've taken several of her courses and she is wonderful!

Permalink Reply by Ariana Vincent, LMT, MTI, BCTMB on April 4, 2013 at 10:33pm

Hire an attorney who has expertise in real estate and business law and prepare your letter of dissolution of the current business arrangement with this chiropractor. Move all of your things out of the office. Have the attorney send the letter of dissolution to the chiropractor via Certified Mail, signature required.