You’ve attracted the right patients, delivered clinical excellence, and reported with clarity. Now it’s time to take all that trust and insight and build a care plan that guides, supports, and transforms.
Care Planning is the fourth step in the Patient Lifecycle—and it’s the glue that holds the entire patient journey together. It’s how you move from reactive, episodic care to a proactive, neurologically-focused relationship that evolves over time.
Why Care Planning Is the Game-Changer
This is where patients go from “getting adjusted” to understanding why they’re getting adjusted. It’s where they stop counting visits and start valuing results.
Care Planning isn’t about locking patients into rigid timelines—it’s about setting expectations, honoring outcomes, and using real data to map out their health journey.
The INSiGHT system makes this incredibly practical. With structured reports, clear scan comparisons, and powerful visuals, you can create care plans based on objective findings—not guesswork.
The Three-Scan Minimum: A Solid Foundation
When any biometrics are used to evaluate improvements, it’s considered “best practice” to compare three data sets.
CLA recommends structuring care around this three-scan minimum:
- Initial Scan – Establishes the baseline
- Progress Exam – Demonstrates changeability
- Comparative Exam – Reveals longer-term trends
This exam-to-exam structure creates a rhythm of care that’s easy to follow, deeply personalized, and incredibly powerful. After these three early scan examinations, Continuation Exams keep the patient engaged and informed as you transition the patient towards lifetime wellness care.
Structure Creates Freedom
When you plan care using data, you remove doubt—for yourself and your patients. You’re no longer saying “let’s see how you feel”—you’re saying, “Here’s how we know your nervous system is adapting.”
Here’s what every great care plan should include:
- Objective exam intervals (e.g., every 12 visits)
- Scan comparisons to track progress visually
- Education points to revisit during re-exams
- A fee structure that supports transparency and value
Pro Tip: Don’t Discount the Scan
CLA strongly advises not to bundle scans as discounts or incentives. These scans are high-value data points. Treat them as essential tools, not giveaways.
Handling Interruptions and New Injuries
Great care planning also accounts for real life. Things happen—kids get sick, vacations pop up, someone gets injured.
Build in flexibility:
- Re-exams for new injuries
- Resets for interrupted plans
- Retention tools to reactivate patients who fall off
The key is to stay consistent and patient-centered. Always come back to the nervous system and how it’s adapting.
Don’t Forget the Bigger Picture: Referrals & Education
Care planning is also a referral engine. As patients progress through care, use these moments to:
- Celebrate wins
- Review wellness goals
- Invite families, neighbors, or coworkers to get scanned
Include simple scripts or prompts that remind your team to ask: “Who else in your life could benefit from knowing this?” Education + results = advocacy.
Action Steps to Build Stronger Care Plans
- Establish fees for exams and scans
- Create clear timelines for 12-visit blocks with scan checkpoints
- Define how you’ll handle care interruptions
- Include patient education in every phase of the care plan
- Design a system for tracking referrals and progress conversations
- Use the INSiGHT data to reinforce care value—not just frequency
Care Planning Is the Path to Lifetime Wellness
This is the final piece of the Patient Lifecycle puzzle—and it’s where your patients go from curious to committed. When you plan care with vision, structure, and heart, your office becomes more than a service—it becomes a sanctuary for families seeking real health solutions.
By integrating the INSiGHT into every care plan, you’re not just planning visits. You’re building futures.
