If the DC creates the appropriate professional corporation paperwork, his company will be allowed to deduct 100 percent of the premiums paid for health insurance for himself and staff. This rule applies to employees of corporations, and it is assumed that the DC would be an employee of his own corporation.
By purchasing health insurance outside of his corporation, the deduction is extremely limited and is only 25 percent of the cost of the health insurance for himself. That deduction is scheduled to be eliminated in 1991.
If the DC is operating in a partnership with two or more doctors, a method in which a partnership may realize the same result would be to have the spouses of the doctors hired on and paid an extremely small salary. They would then be "loaded up" with fringe benefits including health insurance.
Let us suppose the DC does not wish to cover all of his staff but only himself and family.
Under new rules it is possible for him to cover his spouse alone and not the other members of his staff. This is called an "insured" health plan.
An added benefit of the hiring of the spouse approach is that the DC would be able to reduce or eliminate his exposure to social security taxes as well.
Needless to say, it is imperative the DC confer with his CPA before committing to a particular health insurance format.
Recent laws in New Jersey and California represent a disturbing trend that will negatively impact a practice’s ability to collect monies from patients, as well as expose them to significant penalties if the practice does not follow the mandatory guidelines to a T. Please be aware that a similar law may be coming to your state. The time to act is before the law is passed.
Each year, ICD-10-CM is updated on Oct. 1. For 2026, there are 74,179 total codes, with 487 additions, 28 deletions and 38 revisions. Code changes are based on date of service, not the claim submission date. Services performed on/after Oct. 1 must use the new codes. While no changes affect the common spinal or extraspinal codes most frequently used by DCs, several updates may still affect your claims – particularly for comorbidities, referred pain, or trauma cases.
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Southern California University of Health Sciences has entered into an agreement with Pacific College of Health and Science whereby PCHS’ San Diego and Chicago campuses – including students, faculty, staff, and academic programs – will join SCU effective May 2026, pending regulatory approval. Founded in 1986 as Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, PCHS is not only the largest acupuncture / herbal medicine school in the U.S., but also offers integrative health curriculum in holistic nursing and massage therapy.
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