It doesn't really work that way

Insurance companies do not pay for most naturopathic services, even in licensed states. Naturopaths mostly operate on a cash-based system. Insurance checks are so lean that most naturopaths make patients pay cash, and then have the patients self-bill their own insurance companies.

Building a naturopathic business is much more difficult than you think. There is a great deal of expense involved. Imagine graduating and attempting to pay these expenses plus the expenses of your student loans at the same time. If one has about $120-$150K in student loans (an average amount for naturopathic students) loan payments are going to be over $1K a month for 30 years. If you also have to pay overhead expenses, marketing expenses, supplement inventory, malpractice insurance, staff expenses, and more it can get very expensive. There are ways to minimize expenses, but being a business owner is not as easy as everyone thinks.


To convert new patients, you need to be a salesman as well as a doctor. It this doesn't appeal to you, then it may be difficult to make it as a naturopath. Indeed, I think many naturopaths have failed because they cannot reconcile themselves as marketers, salesmen, and entrepreneurs. Almost all of the successful chiropractors out there are very good businessmen.

Getting patients to come for 7-8 hours a day and making a good hourly wage (over $100 an hour) is much more difficult than you make it out to be. You need very polished systems of processing and retaining patients. You also need a HUGE pool of patients that your seeing. Many naturopaths only see their patients once every few weeks. You need a pool of well over a thousand patients to get people in your doors this often. I have worked with chiropractors before-- they struggle with getting enough patient visits and they see patients 1-3X a week covered by insurance!

You have to be able to win over the public, beat out the competition (and the competition is fierce), and convince patients that they need to see you more than one or two times. This can be VERY difficult when you are straight out of school with very little experience. You also have to be able to turn a profit before you run out of money. It is not easy-- most of the skills I just mentioned have nothing to do with being a good naturopath-- they have to do with being a good businessman. On top of everything, there is constant pressure from MDs, family members, ect. telling your patients not to waste their time seeing a naturopath.

As said before, the competition is brutal. Why would someone see an unlicensed naturopath when there are so many licensed chiropractors, alternative MDs, osteopaths, nutritionists, acupuncturists, and more out there? Naturopathic knowledge is not solely limited to naturopaths. It isn't hard to prescribe a supplement. People do it all the time. Look at all the MLM companies out there. How are you any different? If you can't answer this question and can't sell your message to the patient then you can never make it as a naturopath.

Naturopathic medicine isn't like being an MD where you have patients lined up to see you and kiss your feet. It is much more difficult. You have to create your line to see you. This can be VERY, VERY difficult. Look at all the struggling sales professionals in the world and you will know what I am talking about. Naturopathic medicine would be very easy if you already had a line of people waiting to see you, but it doesn't work that way.

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