Overrated Career: Chiropractor

December 11, 2008 RSS Feed Print

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The Appeal: You can treat disease, even if you don't have the grades for a top medical school, and you can also set up shop as a solo operator. It's especially alluring to people with misgivings about mainstream medicine.

The Reality: Some chiropractors think their discipline can cure everything from headaches to sciatica, asthma to premenstrual syndrome. But efficacy is often less than many practitioners claim, even in curing chiropractic's meat and potatoes: low back pain. A 2007 report from the National Institutes of Health said, "For patients whose low back pain does not improve with conventional medications, education, and self-care, clinicians should consider adding one or more of seven alternative or complementary approaches" of which one is chiropractic. The report continues, "None of these are 'fabulous' or first-line treatments for LBP but [some] popular CAM therapies have a moderate effect on chronic low back pain."

Many chiropractors also devote considerable time to marketing—in part to pay back the cost of chiropractic school, usually well over $100,000. Yet according to payscale.com, as of Oct. 25, 2008, the average salary of a chiropractor with five to nine years of experience is $61,542.

On the downsides of this profession: chirobase.com. For a more positive view, see the American Chiropractic Association site, which represents chiropractors.

An Alternative: Physician assistant. They get to do much of what physicians do, with less costly training.

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Very interesting article. It would be great if you waited until 2009 to see who consumer reports rated the best for treating back pain. Please check scienitific based research before you write these defaming articles. Chiropractic is the best for treating neck and back pain in all recent studies. Also, I was a 3.9 college student who wanted to be a Doctor of Chiropractic. I do earn 15-20 times the amount you posted. Maybe, interview a happy working Doctor of Chiropractic before defaming an entire profession. I always loved US News before reading thus article.

Dr Brad Bárez, DC of CA 10:47PM February 08, 2012

I just graduated. Today I applied to Academy Sports and Outdoors because I can make more money there than I can working in Chiropractic. The education is complete crap. I have an undergraduate degree from a real University and I was absolutely appalled by what was taking place. Students had copies of all the tests we took and the cheating was absolutely out of control. When I see people saying Chiro school is equivalent to Medical School, you have got to be kidding me. Oh, and any education before chiro school was rare. 3 years of chiro school makes you a Dr, ok?? What did I learn in Chiropractic school, still trying to figure that out, all I really remember is love everyone and fake it till you make it, ok, whatever that means. But this awesome idea cost me almost 200,000 dollars and like I said, today I applied to Academy. I took a position but quickly quit because I was being paid 12.50/hour for a 30 hour work week. Really, thats like 9 dollars an hour for a 40 hour work week. 7 years of college education and 200,000 dollars later and this is what I get. A title, and 9 bucks an hour. Not to mention all the frivolous charges that were being made that I couldnt associate myself with. Is it common in the real world to take cervical x-rays on all your sciatica patients? This is just the tip of the iceberg of all the fraud that was taking place in this office. What did I learn from this experience, if you want to make it in Chiropractic, rape peoples' insurance for all it is worth. Is that how some of you are making all that money. Great, but how am I, a new graduate supposed to get paid by insurance, thanks for ruining it for those of us with ethics. Tell me again that Chiropractors dont eat their young, yeah right, and the leaders of this profession might be the worst at it. Just take a look at what kind of cars and lavish lifestyles some of the leaders of this profession are living, at the students expense. In school we were told that only about 30% of graduates practice and this makes sense because about 30% of my class was either corrupt enough or had loaded parents that are going to take care of them and their practice financially. My experience with Chiropractic thus far has been horrible, but I am not giving up so dont call me a loser or a failure because I am going to try and make it. I dont have loaded parents and my ethics are intact so wish me luck, but with tight budgeting and close assistance working with a banker I hope to be able to open my own practice within a year or two. This profession needs to grow up, get organized, and stop calling stuff that ISNT chiropractic, chiropractic. I would never recommend someone go to chiropractic school and I hope to make some serious changes to this profession once I get going. Alot of you will not like what I have to say but I dont care because whats taking place now, from school to practice is severly messed up.

What a joke of ID 10:12PM February 07, 2012

I am a formerly practicing DC and currently in the military. As such, I travel around the country fairly often. I make it a point to visit a few chiropractic offices whenever I go somewhere. I will say that the vast majority of the offices I've been in are struggling at best. As chiropractors we tend to lie to eachother about how well practice is going, specifically how well we are being paid by ourselves. No one wants to be seen as a failure. My intent on visiting offices is two-fold: 1) get adjusted and 2) see the status of the profession across the country. Nearly every time I go into an office and ask how practice is going I get an answer something like, "It's doing pretty good." Then they start asking me about what I do and how much I make. Since I am in the military my pay is public record (with a little knowledge of my rank, how long I've been in and any extra pay I receive)" In short, when I tell them I make about $93K /yr their tone changes and the truth starts to come out. As a way to treat people, chiropractic is a fantastic method. But, as a profession it is still imature and stuck in the past. When practicing chiropractors and the "primarily self-proclaimed" leadership in chiropractic can't agree on what the profession is about, how can the public, government(s) or insurance companies?
There are some out there that are dong very well. Their ability to do well is certainly not based on their abilities as a chiropractor (completely different topic). It would appear that one's success is based on their ability to market their practice and the economy in the area in which the practice is located.
I will also say that while I practiced I provided coverage for well over 25 offices in a major city. I was appalled at some of the things I saw in some of those offices in order to get reimbursed. I saw my notes changed to bill for services I didn't perform (but the bill it anyway), front office staff asking me to sign super-bills indicating work that wasn't performed (but a standard item billed), no notes at all unless requested for - in which cae the DC would sit down and make-up the information based on the days the patient had been seen according to billing records. I was asked at one office to change the notes of the MD/PA to match what the DC office had as diagnosis and to include statements (from the MD) to recommend continuation of chiropractic treatments (PI cases).
I still feel that chiropractic has great potenetial, but only if as a profession we are able to come together. CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

DC MILITARY OFF of AZ 12:19PM January 31, 2012

Overrated Career: Chiropractor

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