For The Punk That Has Everything But A Thriving Practice

A punk, a student and a patient all recommend that you read Making Acupuncture Pay by Matthew Bauer. Matt is allowing us to sell his book through POCA in order to donate the proceeds to POCA Tech. Buy his book through the POCA store and support POCA Tech!

Elizabeth Bruckner, L.Ac. (Punk member)

Reading Making Acupuncture Pay was much like following a senior acupuncturist around for a week and asking them every question you can think up.  I recommend this book time and again when newbies ask me what to read.

I consider Making Acupuncture Pay the best book on practice management currently available.  Bauer talks candidly about the problems within our field for new business owners/acupuncturists.  He doesn't waste a lot of time whining.  He offers a thoughtful look at issues a small business owner/acupuncturist faces and provides suggestions on how to handle them before they become serious problems. 

My favorite part of the book was when he talked about treatment plans.  One clinic's patient return rate doubled when the acupuncturist put Bauer’s simple plans into action.  Remarkable, hidden, ancient secrets?  No.  Just one acupuncturist who has been running a successful practice for over 25 years and wants to help our profession grow and help more patients.

Thanks to this book, I am retaining more patients because I know how to better educate them about how acupuncture works. The author spells out the basics for success as both a business owner and an acupuncturist.

This book:

• Gives hope when you're starting out
• Offers specific, useful advice on how to develop treatment plans
• Helps you avoid common pitfalls

The author is a true advocate for other acupuncturists. He has stepped up time and again to help beginning acupuncturists find their way and receive fair treatment.

Matthew Yula (Student member)

I read Making Acupuncture Pay thinking that it would be a good book from which to cherry pick business ideas that would be appropriate for a community style clinic. The book quickly proved to be much more than just a book about business. Bauer also speaks openly and honestly about the A/OM world, his experience in practice and interacting with patients. 

Prospective students would benefit greatly from the section dedicated to the author’s opinions and description of the profession. He writes about the recent history of acupuncture in the West and points out the differences between acupuncture practiced here and in China/Asia. There is no glossing over the fact that making a living as an acupuncturist is a struggle for most. Often pieces discussing the business side of acupuncture give a superficial glimpse of the broad picture. Here the field is presented as-is, including acknowledging the usefulness/success of community style clinics.

Bauer's shares strategies for communicating with patients. He writes about how to maximize the effects of treatments – using symptom presentations to predict likely success and spacing of treatments in a way that gives maximum benefit for the number of treatments. He speaks bluntly about the logistics of making a practice both practical and sustainable. There are not many (if any) sources outside of POCA addressing increasing access to acupuncture in order to gain its full effects, that I know of.   

Probably the best thing about MAP (he should have used that acronym because this book is like a map) is the honest and detailed talk of the struggle for new practitioners; his story about building tables out of 2×4's is not far off from scavenging recliners. Bauer lays it all out, but his appreciation for having the privilege of making a living with acupuncture really comes through and gives the book a real pep-talk feel. As a student trying to stay motivated and positive while wading through countless steps of the A/OM schooling process I'm glad to have taken another look at MAP.

Gloria Jacobs (Patient member)

I didn’t expect to learn much when Lisa asked me to read Matt Bauer’s book Making Acupuncture Pay. Was I wrong! How he developed his model of care makes for an interesting contrast to the route that Lisa and Skip took. If they are working class acupuncture then he is middle class acupuncture.

After years of experiencing acupuncture, how it really works remains a mystery to me even now. Bauer shares strategies for explaining to new patients how acupuncture works. Reading his explanations I learned another way of thinking about the healing process.

Lisa Rohleder (Ur member)

As a longtime friend of POCA we are very grateful for Matt Bauer’s support over the years, especially his support of POCA Tech.

Author: Gloria Jacobs

Gloria Jacobs, Punk Equivalent for POCA Volunteer purposes