Pricing and care plans: what to publish and how it changes your marketing
First visit pricing, good-better-best care plans, prepay and financing, insurance versus cash, and how each choice changes what your ads can say.
Pricing is a marketing decision disguised as an accounting one. What you charge for a first visit determines which ads you can run, what your website can say, who calls, and how many of those callers ever start care. Practices that struggle with marketing are usually running one model's pricing with another model's message.
This guide covers the four decisions that matter and what each one does to your campaigns.
Decision one: insurance or cash, and say it out loud
An insurance practice is a volume business. Reimbursement per visit might be $35 to $70 depending on the payer and the code, so the practice needs a full schedule, efficient throughput and a steady flow of new patients. Marketing has to be broad and access-driven: in network with named plans, appointments this week, no referral needed, convenient hours.
A cash practice is a fit business. A first visit is $100 to $200 and a care plan is $900 to $3,000, so the practice needs fewer patients who are the right fit. Marketing has to be specific and outcome-driven: one condition, one method, one clear description of who you help and what it costs.
The failure mode is a cash practice running "most insurance accepted" ads and then explaining on the phone that no, actually, they do not bill. Callers feel misled and the front desk burns its day. The other failure mode is an insurance practice advertising a premium program to people whose entire decision is whether their copay is $20 or $40.
Pick one, then write everything to match. Publish it on the site so nobody has to call to find out, which is covered in the website guide.
Decision two: what the first visit costs
The first visit price is your marketing's front door. Three common approaches and what each attracts.
A deep discount, $19 to $49. Fills the schedule with people optimizing for price. Conversion to a care plan is typically poor, often under 20%, and the front desk spends its energy on people who were never going to continue. It also runs straight into the state rules discussed below.
A modest new patient rate, $59 to $99. Enough of a reason to act, expensive enough to filter. Care plan conversion in the 35% to 55% range for practices with a solid report of findings.
Full price, $135 to $200, with no discount. Fewer calls, better patients, higher plan conversion. Works when your reviews and referral base already do the persuading. This is the model that pairs best with condition-specific advertising, since someone searching "sciatica specialist" is not comparison shopping on exam price.
Before you advertise any discounted or free examination, check your state chiropractic board's advertising rules. Several boards restrict or prohibit free and discounted exam offers, require particular disclaimer language, or limit the use of the word "free" in health advertising, and federal inducement rules add another layer when a responder could be a Medicare beneficiary. Google and Meta will approve ads your board will fine you for. Read the rule yourself, keep a dated copy, and ask your malpractice carrier if it is unclear.
Decision three: how the care plan is presented
Nearly every practice offers something like a care plan. Almost none present it in a way that makes the decision easy. The fix is three options, presented at the report of findings, on one page the patient can hold.
A workable structure for a cash practice:
- Relief. 8 visits over 4 weeks. Goal is getting the pain down. Around $600, or $75 per visit.
- Corrective. 24 visits over 12 weeks with re-exam at week 6, plus home exercise. Around $1,800, which prices each visit at $75 and lands near the $900 average new patient value most practices see when you blend it across everyone who starts.
- Corrective plus maintenance. 36 visits over 6 months with two re-exams and quarterly check-ins. Around $2,400, about $67 per visit.
The middle option should be the one you actually recommend, and it should be the one most patients pick. The top option exists to make the middle look reasonable and to serve the patients who want it. The bottom option exists so nobody has to say no to everything.
Present visits and time frame, not just the price. A patient comparing $1,800 to nothing says no. A patient comparing $1,800 over twelve weeks against another year of not sleeping properly says yes far more often.
Decision four: prepay, financing and how people actually pay
Give three ways to pay every plan: pay in full with a discount of 5% to 10%, monthly autopay with no discount, or third party financing for larger plans. Practices that offer only pay in full lose the patient who wants the care and cannot write a $1,800 check today.
Autopay is what keeps a plan alive. A patient who prepaid or set up monthly billing shows up for visit fourteen. A patient paying per visit quietly stops at visit six, and you get a schedule that looks fine on Monday and empty by Thursday.
Two administrative points. Discounts for prepayment need to be handled carefully where insurance is involved, so talk to your billing person about dual fee schedule risk before you build it. And publish that financing is available on the site, because "we have payment plans" removes a real objection before anyone calls.
What pricing does to your ads
Every price decision changes the campaign that can work.
- Publishing prices lowers your call volume and raises your booking rate. The front desk gets fewer calls and books more of them.
- A discounted exam offer, where permitted, raises volume on Meta specifically, because Meta traffic needs a reason to act now. It has little effect on Google, where intent already exists.
- Cash pricing makes condition-specific campaigns work better and generic "chiropractor near me" campaigns work worse, since near-me searchers are heavily insurance-driven.
- High prices with thin reviews will not convert on any platform. At a median of 15 reviews across 71,195 chiropractic listings, and only 21.3% past 100, a strong review count is the cheapest permission to charge more that exists. The reviews guide has the process.
Frequently asked
Should I put prices on my website? Yes, at minimum a first visit price and a care plan range. Practices that publish prices report fewer tire kicker calls and higher booking rates, and pricing pages are heavily quoted by the AI assistants covered in the AI search guide.
What if I am more expensive than the office down the street? Then say what the difference buys: longer visits, the same doctor every time, a specific technique, same-week availability. Price objections are almost always clarity objections.
How do I raise prices without losing the practice? Raise for new patients only, effective on a date, and leave existing plans alone until they renew. A 10% increase applied to new patients rarely changes call volume in a measurable way.
If you want help rebuilding the offer, the pages and the campaigns around it, it is one of the services in the free 14-day trial. Text or call (385) 832-6175.