Top 5 Ways To Get Better Value For Money From Your Health Care Professional

In the current economic climate, we all want a better bang for our buck don’t we?  While expert health and wellness advice does come at some financial cost, there are ways that we can ensure that what we are spending is worthwhile.

Who should we consult for our neck, shoulder or back pain? 
Who can help us achieve our health and wellness goals? 

If you are looking for a health care provider, there are many options available to you.  However, how do you know which one will provide the greatest value – that is, achieve the result that YOU are after, most effectively, efficiently and sustainably.

Below are my top 5 tips to ensure you achieve value for money when dealing with health care professionals:

1. Get your first assessment for free. 

Find someone who will assess you and let you know what is going on without charging you.  Why should you pay someone to check you over when they may be unable to help you?  If you need financial or legal advice, you’d expect to get a free initial chat with no obligation to proceed, so why should you not expect the same courtesy with your health? Back In Motion offers all new clients and all existing clients a free 20 minute assesment for new pain or injuries.

2. Have a final goal in mind.

You need to ensure clear and achievable goals are set from day one. This may sound like common sense, but many of us fail to set clear goals with our practitioners.  Without goals, how do you know when your course of treatment is over?  It is a bit like playing football without goal posts – there's a lot of action, but no way to actually know the outcome of the game.   Your goals need to constantly be monitored and reviewed by both you and your practitioner.

3. Get a treatment plan.

It's ideal that your treatment plan is written down and shared with you within the first three visits.  Every practitioner should have an idea of what it will take to get you the result you have outlined.   With a written plan, you are informed and can be realistic in your outcome expectations.  You can determine the approximate costs involved in reaching your goal and can ask appropriate questions to establish a realistic pathway based on your budget. Back In Motion physios use Results4Life® roadmaps to illustrate your treatment plan to meeting your health and wellness goals.

4. Package up multiple services.

In most cases, once you have been delivered a plan of attack in which both you and your health professional are happy, it will lead you to your desired outcome. Pre-purchasing a block of sessions or treatment could attract a discount and can save you money.

5. Best value does not always equal lowest priced. 

When you are looking to purchase a car, while cost can play some part in your decision, people also usually look for reliability, features, total running costs etc.  When you are comparing the costs of one health provider over another, you need to consider the “extras” that are part of the service.  Things such as environment, friendly staff, free tea and coffee, variety of services provided, quality of equipment and whether or not they provide outstanding customer service where you are made to feel like the most important person in the room. This can have a large impact in the “experience” and value of the service you receive.

Personally, I’d rather pay a bit extra for that nicer car that will last longer and cost less in the long term than purchase the bomb that will likely only be a short term solution.

Similarly, I’d rather pay a little extra for a more sustainable outcome to my low back pain than go the cheap, quick-fix option that will inevitably cause me to fork out more money over the longer term getting it treated more regularly.

By following these five simple principals, you can be assured that you will get the best value for money from your health care professional and not overspend unnecessarily. 

Jeremy Hobbs - Physiotherapist and Director, Back In Motion Mount Barker
Jeremy has been a physiotherapist since 1998 and completed his Masters in Sports and Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy in 2005. His clinical interests are in movement disorders of the shoulder and lumbo-pelvic regions and he has worked with numerous VFL and SANFL football clubs, as well as at national tennis and triathlon events. Along with having taught undergraduate students in the field of clinical musculoskeletal physiotherapy, Jeremy's interest in treating low back pain and shoulder pain has seen him teaching on these topics within the Back In Motion network and at community seminars.