The Middle Model: Sustainable Acupuncture Clinic Provides Affordable Access to Health Care
Universal Family Wellness Clinic (UFWC) is inconspicuously located in Silverlake, Los Angeles, just around the corner from Sunset Junction in an unassuming brown and tan building. This Acupuncture and East Asian Herbal Medicine Clinic has combined ideas of sustainability and accessibility to create a successful business model that offers the community affordable, effective, natural medicine and fuels a healthy growing business.
As healthcare costs continue to rise for many reasons, one thing remains true: many people have a hard time affording medical care that effectively treats their health concerns, wether it be natural medicine like Acupuncture or Allopathic medicine.
Over the last few decades acupuncture has become increasingly accepted by the public and within medical communities as an effective treatment for pain management. More recently, it is being recognized for it's effectiveness treating fertility, digestive disease, insomnia, migraines, women's health, and more. However, despite the popularity and successes of acupuncture, a glance at the demographics of patients shows there are many people who are not taking advantage of this health modality. These potential patients include people from every socioeconomic level who have a wide range of ability to pay for health care.
Currently, the pricing at most clinics for a single acupuncture treatment and herbal supplements is generally $80-$120 per treatment and $80 a month for herbs. This price makes it hard for many people without insurance, who haven't yet met their deductible, who have no acupuncture covered, and/or who have already met their maximum number of covered visits to afford regular treatments. Ultimately, this amounts to many people only getting 1-3 treatments or not going at all. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs' most lasting benefits come from frequent treatments over varying periods of time depending on the ailment. Thus when patients can't afford enough treatments, lasting results are not seen and acupuncture appears less effective.
Universal Family Wellness Clinic has setup a hybrid pricing system that allows people to afford as many treatments as they need while also sustaining a healthy, growing business. UFWC's pricing is a sliding scale of $40-60 per treatment with a $30 low income rate. Patients use their income and budget to decide themselves where they fit in this scale so they can afford enough treatments to see lasting results. The 400 different herbs at UFWC are priced individually based on current market price which allows for the markup to be below the standard 100% and allows for the lowest possible price to patients. One of the ways UFWC is able to offer such low pricing is by maintaining very low business expenses and overhead. Acupuncture can be a very inexpensive medicine to deliver. All you need is a treatment room, needles, and a massage table. This is how acupuncture has been able to successfully benefit millions of communities rich and poor for over 3000 years.
UFWC believes sustainability in medicine is: truly simple access to effective treatments that fuel a healthy business that grows as patient's get better. This sustainable business model's self-engendering cycle comes full circle when patients who are able to afford enough treatments get lasting relief and then refer their friends and family who are then fueling the business which can then continue to provide care.
The Universal Family Wellness Clinic business model lies between the high cost of insurance billing based acupuncture and the group treatment setting of community based acupuncture. Universal Family Wellness Clinic is built as beautifully as the most luxurious clinics and has California licensed acupuncturists who have trained extensively in Los Angeles, Seattle, China, and Cuba. Moreover, patients get great results that are easily verified through online reviews and the constant flow of new patients coming from patient referrals. This clinic uses no paid advertisement of any kind and only relies only on patient successes and treatment results to fuel growth.
This family business treats back pain, neck pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, most other pain, migraines, PCOS, infertility, irregular periods, endometriosis, digestive distress, asthma, allergies, anxiety, and depression with incredible results. Universal Family Wellness Clinic sets an example of how health care can be affordable to communities, profitable for practitioners, and provide lasting relief for patients. As one current patient puts it, "I highly recommend Universal Family Wellness Clinic! Not only are the treatments extremely effective and incredibly thorough, Brooke and Michael approach their work with genuine caring and strong ethics. Making acupuncture available to all on a sliding scale is radical and equitable!”
Michael Niss, L.Ac.
universalfamilyclinic.com
Acupuncture in Silverlake, Los Angeles