TL;DR — What This Means for Chiropractors

The insurer CEO hearing changed nothing—but it revealed everything.

Congress isn’t fixing healthcare. Insurers aren’t loosening control. And independent chiropractors will feel the squeeze first.

Expect more prior auths, more denials, more admin friction—not less.

Growth Lab: What the Health Insurer CEO Hearing Really Means for Chiropractors

Last week, health insurer CEOs sat through nine hours of Congressional hearings.

There were microphones. There were talking points. There was a lot of finger-pointing.

And—surprise—nothing changed.

But if you’re a chiropractor, this wasn’t just political theater. It was a signal. And it tells us a lot about where the system is heading—and who’s going to get squeezed in the process.

Let’s break it down.

The Big Lie: “Reform Is Coming”

Here’s what the hearing looked like:

• Lawmakers grilling insurers
• Insurers blaming hospitals, pharma, and consolidation
• Everyone saying the system is “broken”
• Everyone promising “value-based care”

Here’s what it was:

• A show
• A blame carousel
• Zero structural change

Healthcare is one of the two largest drivers of U.S. debt. Touching it in a meaningful way is political suicide. So instead of reform, we get performative outrage.

That matters—because when nothing changes at the top, pressure gets pushed downstream.

And downstream is where chiropractors live.

What Actually Tightens After Hearings Like This

When insurers are under scrutiny, they don’t loosen controls. They do the opposite.

Expect:

• More prior authorizations
• More utilization review
• More “medical necessity” denials
• More payment delays
• Narrower networks
• Higher administrative burden

Insurers already told Congress their playbook:

“We control costs by controlling care.”

That control doesn’t hit hospital systems first. It hits small, independent providers.

Chiropractors Are Collateral Damage

Here’s the uncomfortable truth no one on that stage said out loud:

Chiropractors are:

• Too small to lobby
• Too fragmented to negotiate
• Easy to delay, deny, and exhaust administratively

Big systems can absorb friction. Independent clinics can’t.

So when insurers defend their role by pointing to “complexity,” that complexity becomes your overhead.

More staff time. More paperwork. More friction between you and getting paid.

Why “Value-Based Care” Doesn’t Save You (Yet)

Everyone loves to say value-based care.

But what they mean is:

• Aggregated data
• Long reporting cycles
• System-level contracts
• Bureaucratic metrics

Independent chiropractors don’t fit neatly into that model—unless they bring their own proof.

Without outcomes:

• You’re invisible
• You’re interchangeable
• You’re easy to exclude

With outcomes:

• You’re defensible
• You’re referable
• You’re understandable to patients and AI

That’s the wedge.

The Quiet Shift That Is Happening

While Congress argues…

Patients are:

• Confused about coverage
• Frustrated by denials
• Distrustful of networks
• Paying more out of pocket anyway

And when trust breaks, people stop asking:

“Is this in-network?”

They start asking:

“Who actually helps people like me?”

That’s the opening.

The Growth Lab Takeaway

This hearing confirms something we’ve been saying for a while:

Insurance-dependent growth is fragile. Outcome-driven growth compounds.

The chiropractors who will win the next 3–5 years will:

• Reduce insurance dependency (not overnight, strategically)
• Build patient-paid pathways alongside insurance
• Document outcomes like a moat
• Control their narrative online
• Be legible to search, AI, and referrals

Not louder. Not cheaper. Clearer.

Final Thought

When the adults in the room argue… The clinics with proof quietly win.

Growth doesn’t come from waiting for reform. It comes from building leverage outside the broken system—while still operating inside it.

That’s the Growth Lab lens.

The clinics that win won’t wait for reform. They’ll reduce insurance dependence strategically, build patient-paid pathways, and document outcomes so they’re findable, referable, and defensible.

In a gridlocked system, proof beats permission.

When the adults argue, the chiropractors with outcomes quietly win.