The Haydel Brothers find it is the best of times in Southern California by adhering to their principles and practice philosophies

Terry Haydel, DC, (left)
and Kerry Haydel, DC

Strictly as a matter of principle, neither Terry Haydel, DC, nor his twin brother and practice partner Kerry Haydel, DC, belongs to any preferred provider panels. So, it understandably came as a shock to the pair when they discovered that a managed care organization had placed them on its preferred provider roll without their knowledge or consent.

Upon contacting the payor to find out how and why this was done, the Haydels—who own the Haydel & Haydel Chiropractic Center in Torrance, Calif—were told simply that numerous patients of the brothers had requested it. But more pertinently,

“This particular HMO was very eager to have us on its preferred provider panel because our full fee for an office visit was less than the copayment of other doctors on that same list,” says Terry Haydel.

The Haydels eventually had their practice removed from the preferred provider roster, but to this day remain upset with the payor. Not for the sneaky way they were added to the list (that is a bygone and they have decided to let it be exactly that), but because the payor is part of the insurance industry—and according to the Haydels, insurance companies are responsible for causing significant damage to health care in this country.

“Managed care was presented to the public as the cure for the high cost of health care,” says Terry Haydel. “But all that happened was insurance companies minimized care—and costs rose anyway. Of course, at any price, health is something health care has never provided to begin with. Medicine is fabulous for trauma care, surgery, and prescription medication. Even I am enrolled in an HMO for those things. But I do not expect my HMO to keep my joints from deteriorating. I do, however, expect the HMO to replace my joints if they should so happen to deteriorate. I do not expect them to recognize alternatives to prescription medication. I do, however, expect a prescription when the alternatives fail.

“Above all, I do not expect my HMO to keep me healthy, and that is why I have chosen chiropractic as a lifestyle as well as a profession. We ask too much of [traditional Western] medicine and not enough of prevention and holistic health. Chiropractic is the largest holistic health profession, and it exists by recognition of its ability to relieve pain, prevent disease, and restore health.”

They Will Come
Strong views about insurance companies aside, the Haydel brothers are noted for operating a practice that attracts new patients by referral only.

“For our first couple of years in practice, we had a Yellow Pages advertisement—but in all that time it attracted only one patient, and as it was, that person did not stay with us long enough to justify the price of the ad,” says Terry Haydel. “Today, we have just a Yellow Pages listing with our name and phone number only, no display ad.”

The brothers believe instead that the best marketing tool is the ability of chiropractic to help restore health to people .

“Get one person well and he will bring his spouse and children in for treatment,” says Kerry Haydel, “My philosophy is kind of a take-off on that line from the movie Field of Dreams, where Kevin Costner hears a voice that says, ‘Build it, and they will come.’ In my version, I hear a voice that says, ‘Get results, and they will come.’ It has been my experience, though, that not only will they come when they get results, but they will also come back again and again—and they will refer others.”

As Terry Haydel puts it, “We feel our greatest source of advertising is our patients.”

Patients of the practice come from all walks and age groups. The one thing they have is common is pain.

“Neck and back pain is a full-time job in our practice,” says Terry Haydel, who explains that he and Kerry Haydel are keen about using the Activator Method to adjust patients.

“[It] employs less force than the most widely used manipulation techniques, and also offers a method of analysis that helps us avoid the greatest pitfall in chiropractic, which we believe is the failure to diagnose pathology.

“The ultimate gratification we get is when we find a patient with pain secondary to tumors or organ-referred pain that would have gone undiagnosed if this system of analysis did not alert us to an inconsistency in the pain and area of subluxation. Confidence in your chosen technique is forged in steel when you get that phone call from patients thanking you for sending them for medical evaluation while their cancer or heart condition is still manageable.”

Terry Haydel adds that those who are frightened by the cracking sound of a neck or back being adjusted are less intimidated with the Activator Method.

“I think fear of manipulation is unfounded when you consider 300,000 patients a year die in the United States of prescription drug use, while it is difficult to find a person in a wheelchair paralyzed from manipulation,” he says. “With the popularity of bungee jumping, white-knuckle roller coasters as well as television shows like Survivor, Hot Seat, and Fear Factor, it amazes me that a huge percentage of the public is still apprehensive about a visit to the chiropractor.

“However, I believe that with education and public awareness, the fear factor in chiropractic will eventually all but vanish.”

Talking Horse Sense
At Haydel & Haydel, low-tech approaches to care are favored.“Physiotherapy modalities are wonderful once you remove the alignment problem that caused the pain, but we’re not all that big on physiotherapy—in fact, the only therapy we use with an electric cord attached to it is an ultrasound unit,” says Terry Haydel.

Still, from time to time, the Haydels find it necessary to purchase equipment to aid them in their work. When such occasions arise, they follow strict criteria they have developed to guide them in purchasing decisions.

“We always consider a product’s efficacy in alleviating the patient’s ailments,” says Kerry Haydel. “We also consider its cost-effectiveness and the time commitment on the part of both the doctor and patient. Moreover, we never lease equipment—if it turns out the equipment does not meet expectations, it is a lot harder to throw it away or take a hammer to it if we’re still making payments on it.”

The Haydels’ practice is set in an attractive facility, one they designed (with some professional advice) to feel homey.

“We decorated with traditional furniture and gave the place a real masculine flair—with names like Terry and Kerry, you’ve got to put antlers on the wall to keep first-time visitors from thinking the doctors are women,” Terry Haydel jests.

Among the distinguishing features of the office is the way the walls are adorned with photographs of racehorses.

“My brother and I are horse racing fanatics,” Terry Haydel confides. “The pictures are conversation pieces. They allow us to make a few points about chiropractic to our new patients. Specifically, here is an animal with strength, structure, and efficiency of motion, and it is those qualities that will determine whether the horse wins the race. Also, [these traits] are qualities we want to achieve here in this office through chiropractic care.”

Two Epiphanies, One Destiny

Kerry Haydel, DC, (left) and Terry Haydel, DC, discuss the proposed treatment plan with patient Helen Morales. Parents of identical twins often delight in dressing them alike from the moment they are born. But, no sooner than those same twins are old enough to dress themselves, they strive in every way imaginable to be as different as possible from one another. That certainly was true in the case of Terry Haydel, DC, and Kerry Haydel, DC. Despite their most strenuous efforts to bear no resemblance to each other, the brothers ended up on the exact same career track, beginning first as premedical students and culminating in their decision to become chiropractors. “We signed up as microbiology majors but soon became disillusioned with the microbial theory of disease,” says Terry Haydel, who notes that the tripwire for that change in thinking was their professor’s decision to give Kerry Haydel a poor grade in response to voicing opinions about pathogenic organisms contrary to classroom dogma. Quickly, Terry Haydel began to doubt the validity of much of what he had been taught about illness, its causes, and treatments. “I began searching for an alternative answer,” he says. “This led me eventually to chiropractic.” Kerry Haydel tells a somewhat different tale of what led him to choose chiropractic. “My wife made me do it,” he contends. “While working her way through college as a supermarket cashier, she would get severe headaches lasting for several days and did not respond to conventional medical treatment. “One day, while she was ingesting about a dozen extra-strength pain relievers, a coworker, who happened to be a student in chiropractic college, asked her why she needed to take so many of those at once. He explained that the headaches might be the result of an upper cervical subluxation and offered to adjust her neck right there in the lunchroom. Within minutes, her headache had completely vanished.” That night, his excited fianceé urged him to “check out this chiropractic stuff,” he recalls. “She even had to spell the word chiropractic for me, since I had never even heard of it before.” Liking what he learned as he probed into the mysteries of chiropractic, Kerry Haydel decided to enroll in chiropractic college. He convinced Terry Haydel to do so as well. “I’m sure we were about the only chiropractic college students who had enrolled without first having experienced a chiropractic treatment—what a leap of faith that was,” Kerry Haydel shares. The brothers attended the same chiropractic college and graduated together. They decided to practice in partnership because, as Kerry Haydel says, “it just seemed natural. A higher source saw fit to put us on this earth together and we saw no reason to break up the set.” Terry Haydel says the decision to practice together was almost a no brainer. “Besides sharing common ideology, philosophy, and DNA, no one else completely understands Kerry’s sense of humor as well as I do,” he says. CP

Prevention Focus
Kerry Haydel, DC, puts patient Edward Salair at ease while taking his blood pressure.

Beyond drawing comparisons between horses and humans, the Haydels report finding it unnecessary to spend a great deal of time educating new patients about chiropractic.

“We don’t have to describe to new patients what it is we do as chiropractors,” says Terry Haydel. “They usually tell us how we are going to tap them with the thumper instrument and get rid of their pain, just like we did to their Aunt Sally. Most people expect a visit to a chiropractic office will include spinal manipulation; some advice about exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle changes; and the comfort that we will be here when life, work, and gravity overwhelms them again.”

The Haydel brothers, despite their successes as chiropractic practitioners, are reasonably sure they do not want to set up satellites in order to extend their presence in the Torrance market.

“I don’t see the future holding a chain of offices like this one,” says Terry Haydel. “Chiropractic offices are unique and I don’t see office cloning in the cards. My practice is all that I want it to be—low stress for the doctors and high success for the patients. I think my brother and I have a rare animal in this world, and it’s called contentment.”

Even so, a transformation he would like to see is a practice more focused on prevention.

“Maybe the great hope in this profession is to get to the kids early enough to break the cycle of generational pain and degenerative joint disease,” Terry Haydel says. “What makes our day is when patients who are not in any pain comes to us regardless, because all they want is to stay healthy, no matter that their insurance policy has a no payment clause for chiropractic maintenance.” CP

Rich Smith is a contributing writer for Chiropractic Products.