Recognizing a Suite of Financial Products Designed to Protect Chiropractic Offices and Help Them Scale

In a Nutshell: Doctors seeking to enhance their practices can benefit from partnering with a company that offers solutions tailored to medical professionals. NCMIC has been serving the healthcare industry since 1946. The company offers an array of financial products, including credit cards, loans, and insurance offerings. CardRates is recognizing NCMIC with our Editor’s Choice™ Award for its suite of financial solutions that help doctors grow their practices.

Prospective doctors face long journeys to realize their dream of becoming medical professionals in their chosen field of practice. In addition to completing multiple years of academic study, a doctor who wishes to establish a practice must be mindful of the business processes necessary to manage a successful medical office.

In 1946, a group of chiropractors struggled to obtain malpractice insurance that fit the needs of their chiropractic businesses. The chiropractors partnered to create their own insurance company, NCMIC, to provide support for their practices that wasn’t available elsewhere.

NCMIC expanded over the years to offer additional services, such as payment offerings and credit solutions. As it grew, the company began offering its services to other healthcare providers, including dentists, naturopaths, and physicians.

We spoke with Rebecca Strait, NCMIC’s Senior Product Manager of Business Credit Cards, and Rich Wells, the company’s Vice President and General Manager, to learn more about NCMIC’s solutions and how the company has evolved to meet the needs of chiropractic offices. 

Strait started working for NCMIC in 2016. She began her career with the company working on the payment processing side of the business before shifting to focus on business credit cards.

“The core of the company serves chiropractors and the chiropractic world,” Strait said. “But we’ve expanded to offer services to nearly anyone operating within the healthcare field. Anyone in the medical field that has their own practice or business needs support in one way or another, and we can provide that for them.”

The company’s tagline — “We Take Care of Our Own” — adorns a large wall inside its headquarters. Strait said the company takes care of both its internal and external customers.

“Our tagline itself kind of differentiates us from our competitors because we truly are there for our employees and our customers,” Strait said. “We’re kind of a small company, so we’re somewhat similar to a next-door neighbor in that we’ll be there to help you out no matter what. That resonates with our customers and is a big differentiator for us.”

The needs of chiropractors have fueled NCMIC’s growth over time. Wells said the company develops new products when it realizes its customers need a solution for their evolving businesses. NCMIC aims to provide all the financial and insurance products and services a healthcare professional requires to strengthen their practice.

The company provides services tailored to new doctors who have recently graduated from college and are just beginning to build their practice. NCMIC offers resources to help doctors craft a business plan for their practice. Wells said NCMIC offers solutions that are cost effective for new doctors who may be struggling to repay their student loans. 

The company also provides services designed for experienced healthcare professionals who manage multiple locations and have numerous doctors working in their practices.

“One thing I love about this company is our ability to help healthcare professionals regardless of where they are in their career paths,” Wells said. “We can help brand new doctors as well as those who have complex problems to solve, such as managing electronic health records.”

A company that has served its clients since the 1940s can have a wealth of customer information at its disposal. Wells said NCMIC likely has more information about the chiropractic community than any other company in the U.S.

The company uses the information it has compiled to help it make informed decisions about the products and services it offers. NCMIC also incorporates feedback it receives from doctors and medical professionals to enhance its solutions and help steer new product development.

NCMIC launched its business credit card business in 1995. Business credit cards allow cardholders to differentiate their business expenses from their personal expenditures. Strait said NCMIC advises doctors to keep their business and personal expenses separate to allow them to track their practice costs more easily and access more favorable credit card terms.

NCMIC’s business credit cards provide flexibility to enable businesses with multiple employees to assign spending limits to each employee issued a company credit card.

NCMIC’s Classic Card is the first credit card the company offered. The card does not carry an annual fee and provides cardholders with one reward point for each dollar spent. Cardholders can redeem points for gift cards, merchandise, statement credits, or travel rewards.

The company charges an annual fee for its Preferred Card that it waives when cardholders reach certain spending thresholds. The Preferred Card offers 1.5 points for each dollar a cardholder spends, and earned points never expire.

“As the years went by after we created our Classic Card, people were asking us for a card with better rewards where the points they earned wouldn’t expire,” Strait said. “So we created the Preferred Card to provide those benefits, and there’s no limit to what they can purchase with it. Another nice thing is that when cardholders go to make a redemption, it’s not a specific category that they have to use it for — we provide multiple redemption options.”

NCMIC’s approach to underwriting dictates that an employee review every credit card application the company receives. The company uses advanced technologies and algorithms to inform its underwriting practices, but Wells said the company employs a white-glove approach to more fully understand an applicant’s background and credit profile.

“We probably spend more time with our customers during the application and review process than many of our competitors could afford to,” Wells said. “That’s really important to us because sometimes there’s just more to the story than what the algorithms are telling you. And that’s why we make sure that a human reviews every single application we receive.”

NCMIC’s malpractice insurance protects chiropractic and naturopathic physicians. Wells said NCMIC enjoys a strong reputation for supporting doctors when they need it the most.

“We may not be the least expensive option on the malpractice side, but we do have a very good reputation,” Wells said. “We back up our doctors when it counts and provide the protection they need when there’s a claim filed against them. We’re there for them when it matters.”

Doctors who are establishing their practices can be overwhelmed by the costs of medical equipment necessary to operate a healthcare facility. NCMIC offers equipment loans to help doctors purchase the items needed to conduct their practice, including X-ray machines, exam tables, and medical tools. 

NCMIC believes in giving back to the communities it serves. The company supports organizations that assist veterans and disadvantaged youth. Strait said many NCMIC employees participate in nonprofit organizations that support their communities.

As NCMIC grows, it remains committed to communicating with its customers and serving them in a way that addresses their needs.

“What’s different about NCMIC, and it’s something that I think is really interesting, is that we purposefully give our customers more of a concierge type of service,” Wells said. “We’re very selective about the areas of business that we get into, but we give our customers the best level of customer service available.”