Health Care Franchises are Booming

Business is booming for new health care franchises

Ace Stryker - Daily Herald
The doctor's office could be going the way of the restaurant. Local and national numbers suggest an emerging trend among health care providers: More optometrists, chiropractors and other specialists are signing up with franchises, opting for the security of an established brand over the frenzied tug-of-war of an independent practice.
Companies like Massage Envy, a chain offering therapeutic massage services, are burning up Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500 list. The Arizona-based company started franchising in 2003 and has since exploded into 439 locations, including 13 in Utah and one more on the way. The breakneck pace earned Massage Envy the No. 2 spot on Entrepreneur's listing of new franchises this year.
It's a similar story for SpinalAid Centers of America, a Florida-based company offering nonsurgical spinal decompression therapy. Having started franchising in 2003, the chain now boasts 142 locations across the United States, including eight in Utah. That was good enough for 18th place among new franchises this year.
Dr. Eric Lee owned Utah's first SpinalAid franchise in American Fork. He founded a private practice there in 2003, but signed up with the national chain in 2005 after meeting with its founder, Dr. Frank Liberti, in Florida. He said he was hesitant at first to give up on his independent practice and join the company, fearing it could reflect an image unrepresentative of his philosophy -- but as he began to see the benefits, those feelings were assuaged.
"I had a lot of ideas," he said. "When I met with them and they said, 'We've already got all this stuff,' I didn't have to do it."
Lee said the biggest advantage he's seen is that SpinalAid handles the business end of things -- coordinating marketing, dealing with insurance companies -- so he can give his undivided attention to healing, rather than worrying about the bottom line.
"I can focus fully on the patients," he said. "I don't have to worry about printing and creating material, creating a brand -- that's all there. That's huge."
Now, Lee can go online and simply click on any number of template ads created by the company. Days later, they're appearing in the newspaper and on TV.
Lee pitched SpinalAid as the safe choice for consumers, too: Like a McDonald's, patients know what to expect in the way of services and pricing at any SpinalAid they enter, whereas billing could vary wildly from one independent practice to another. That's beginning to yield industrywide benefits, he said, where large insurance companies are looking to franchises to help standardize how compensation is awarded for different procedures.
Aaron Massey, a Pleasant Grove man suffering from a bulging disk he sustained while building a shed, visited the store Thursday for a lumbar decompression procedure. Having been treated by independent chiropractors before, he said a friend recommended he try the franchise over conventional offices.
"They're one-on-one with the patients," he said.
Massey said he had no reservations about seeing a franchise provider instead of an independent doctor -- that the potential "McDonald's factor" wasn't an issue.
Optometry chains have led the field of franchised health care for years. Pearle Vision began franchising in 1980, and now maintains 402 independent stores and 496 company-owned ones. It currently holds spot No. 104 on Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 list.
Entrepreneur magazine's staff did not return calls Friday for comment.