Ep # 183 - Chiropractor House Calls In New Jersey

A chiropractor shows up at your door, sets up a table, and helps you get back to moving well, without the waiting room. That’s the idea behind HomeVisitNJ, and Mark Goldstein joins me to explain why in-home chiropractic care is suddenly one of the most logical models in modern health and wellness, especially for busy Bergen County households and anyone juggling work-from-home schedules. 

Mark breaks down how he thinks about chiropractic adjustments in straightforward terms: when the spine is out of alignment, it can irritate nerves and impact how the body feels and functions. We talk about musculoskeletal pain, posture, and why consistency matters if you want lasting results, not just a one-time fix. We also get into the questions people really ask, including whether adjustments might influence issues beyond back pain, and what realistic “maintenance care” looks like over months and years. 

We also go behind the business of health care. Mark shares what he’s seen change since starting practice in 1999, why insurance and rising deductibles create friction for both doctors and patients, and why he chose a private-pay concierge chiropractic approach that prioritizes time, simplicity, and individualized attention. If you’ve ever put off getting care because scheduling feels like a hassle, this conversation will hit home. 

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NJHomeVisit
Mark Goldstein
917-533-3197
njhomevisit@gmail.com
njhomevisit.com

Transcript

Welcome To Good Neighbor Podcast

Intro/Close 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.

Doug Drohan 0:11

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I am your host, Doug Drohan. Today we are joined by uh well joined with Mark Goldstein. He's the owner of Home Visit NJ. It's an in-home chiropractic kind of concierge service. And uh he's based at a Demerist or Woodcliffe Lake. I'm not sure which one, but both in Bergen County. And uh Mark, welcome to the show.

Why Launch A Home Visit Chiropractor

Mark Goldstein 0:34

Thanks a lot, Doug. Appreciate you having me.

Doug Drohan 0:36

Yeah, so you're a uh so you know, listen, I've had a lot of chiropractors on my show. I have uh a lot of different types of doctors, um, but I haven't had anybody that does, you know, back in the old days of uh home visits. So uh where did you come up with this idea?

Mark Goldstein 0:56

Well, uh during COVID, I noticed a lot of people were getting concierge MD services. People would show up at your house, do COVID tests, do all sorts of testing, and convenience is key. So I reached out to a bunch of guys that I noticed were doing that with the chiropractic um medicine, and uh they were pretty successful and happy. And I like to travel, and I certainly like to give people in individual individualized attention. Um so that gave me the idea. So I'm launching it. Right now I'm just doing it in New Jersey, but I'm sure I'll expand to New York as well. Uh for about 20 years I had uh a practice or a couple practices in New York City, uh, but I reside in New Jersey. Um I'm looking forward to helping some people with any sort of musculoskeletal problems or just overall wellness, which is what chiropractic's all about.

Doug Drohan 1:54

So how long have you been on a chiropractor?

Mark Goldstein 1:57

I've been a chiropractor since 1999. And I there's different forms of chiropractic. Uh some people just want to align your spine, uh, because that allows your body to sort of uh heal itself. Long story short, is when your vertebrae or bones of the spinal column misalign, they put pressure on nerves. So what I do is I simply take the pressure uh off the nerves by aligning your spine properly. I did that in New York City for quite a while, but I also did rehabilitation as well, like if you had a spores injury, like a rotator cuff problem or you know, uh ACL problem. Um I kind of do both now, but I just definitely believe in chiropractic as a great form of um homeopathic health care.

Doug Drohan 2:51

Right. So how how does so the helping somebody with a torn rotator cuff that's that's not chiropractic care.

Mark Goldstein 3:01

Well, I mean by getting adjusted properly, it allows your innate, your body's uh natural ability to help the healing process. So in that case, it is, but directly it's not. I mean, there's certain exercises that you could do. Um, obviously, if it's a real bad tear, you could be a surgical candidate. But I just think chiropractic care is good for pretty much anyone in any condition.

Doug Drohan 3:27

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's the whole um you know, uh integrated, I guess you could call uh aspect of the human body. And um, there's a guy that I used to take his classes when I was a personal trainer, his name is Paul Check. It's called the Czech Institute. And um he would say that if you look at um your personal training client and they're complaining of knee pain, he said look at them from the feet on up to the way they hold their head, because it the knee pain might be a result of their posture, might be a result of their eyesight, might be a result of how they walk. So it may not just be the knee, it's everything's connected, what he called the totem pole. So um, yeah, and I totally get that. So, like at what point, like, so you've been a chiropractor for a while, um, you know, 30 years almost. So, at what point did you, you know, decide this is what I want to study? Like, was there a a moment in your life where you needed to go to a chiropractor and you and you felt like, wow, this is great. I want to be able to do this.

How Insurance Changes Chiropractic Care

Mark Goldstein 4:32

Yeah, that's a great question. And that's exactly what happened. I was having some overall health problems and also some some musculoskeletal problems. So there was a guy, I grew up in Rockland County, New York, and there was a guy that was there, and he adjusted me and um educated me on the benefits of having a proper aligned spine, how it's not just for pain. And it was just it made perfect sense. Uh, so at that point, I was also a personal trainer and um interested in in the muscoskeletal system and the human body. And I went to him a number of times, and then I said, Let me just go to school and check this out. So I went down to Marietta, Georgia, to a place called Life College. Yeah, and um it's it's the largest, I think, in the in the world, and uh I got a pretty decent education there and enjoyed um my stay.

Doug Drohan 5:27

Nice, nice. So a lot's changed in the medical field and industry. I mean, obviously, COVID, as you said, turned things on its head in terms of how businesses meaning a medical practice could uh react and and thrive. So what have you seen? Like I chiropractic care has been around a long time. And I used to go to a chiropractor when I was in high school. Um, you know, that's going back a ways. So uh, you know, what have you seen like evolve in in the industry in 30 years?

Mark Goldstein 6:00

Well, that in the industry thing it's sort of devolved. Medical insurance coverage is gotten so much more challenging for not just chiropractors, for for all doctors. Um there used to be, I used to see patients that would have insurance plans that had what's something called a deductible. Uh, and usually if you saw like a thousand dollar deductible, yeah, uh that would be something that was outrageously high. And now that that's incredibly low. Um there's less and less um coverage from third-party payers for chiropractic and and medicine in general. So um it certainly challenged our profession, no doubt about it. It certainly made things much more difficult.

Doug Drohan 6:46

Yeah. So as a concierge doctor, I mean, that has the ring of um, you know, for the rich people, you know, I could say rich. I mean, I think we have to qualify what rich means. Um, uh, you know, if you live in Bergen County um and you make the average household income around Demarest, you know, you'd be considered rich. Uh so, but nevertheless, you know, I've met a lot of doctors that no longer take insurance for the reasons you mentioned. So if you're gonna go to a um, it might be at a network so you can apply to get reimbursement, but you have to fork over the um $150 or whatever it is, whether you're going for a chiropractor or you're going for a you know, a mental health specialist, um, or you're going to the dentist. I used to have a dentist who didn't take insurance, and dental work is expensive, you know, but they stopped taking insurance. And it's like, man. So um, so your service is concierge, you go to people's homes, uh, it's private pay.

Mark Goldstein 7:54

Yeah, yeah. You know, I decided to to forgo the insurance because of the frustration I had with dealing with insurance companies and constantly battling them. Um I I don't want to make it just exclusive for rich people. I certainly want to treat all people, but yeah, um, I also believe that what I bring has a lot of value. Uh, so there is some uh, you know, so there is a cost, there's no doubt about it. Right.

Doug Drohan 8:24

I wish I could. Well, the value, you know, you're coming to somebody's home, right? And uh, I guess you bring your table or whatever it is you bring with you, but there's value and convenience.

Maintenance Care And Realistic Frequency

Mark Goldstein 8:35

Absolutely. Yeah, there's absolute value and convenience. I mean, a lot of people would prefer that, it seems. I mean, that's that's the vibe that I'm getting. You know, um a lot of people don't want to just you know slept to the chiropractor or or medical doctor. Um but I believe I provide a great service, and I think that you okay.

Doug Drohan 9:00

Uh you kind of froze, so I'm gonna keep talking while you while you froze on camera. Okay.

Mark Goldstein 9:07

What's that?

Doug Drohan 9:08

Uh you had frozen there for a second, but go ahead.

Mark Goldstein 9:11

Oh, yeah. A lot of people get what's called subluxations, though that's misalignment of the vertebrae, and there's a variety of reasons why you get these things. And um I believe that my services could benefit most people, not just people with injuries.

Doug Drohan 9:28

Right, right. So do you um I mean, do you subscribe to the thought that if I have hay fever or allergies, that getting an adjustment could help with my with the way my body reacts to histamines?

Mark Goldstein 9:46

Absolutely, I really do. Um, again, it it goes back to the reason I mentioned earlier. Your body has a lot of natural healing properties in it. Um, and when your vertebrae, the bones of the spinal column misalign, they put pressure on those nerves that go to every organ of your body. A very simplistic way of looking at it is stepping on a flowing guarding hose, garden hose. If you're stepping on it, the water's not flowing as freely as it possibly can. The same is true for the energy that flows through the nerves to the organs of your body. So if you are properly aligned, you're not getting the decreased flow of your life force, of your healing properties. Right. So it allows your body to heal itself, and that's what would happen with the histamines, uh, you know, or the hay fever. Some people have great results, some people like it gets better real quickly. Some people it is less effective, but your body is is is you know, this biochemical individuality, each person kind of responds differently. But I've seen some some pretty impressive things uh with chiropractic and with getting adjusted properly and consistently.

Doug Drohan 11:03

Getting an adjustment is that something you just do one time and then you're good, or is it something you rec recommend you do on a weekly or you know regular basis?

Mark Goldstein 11:13

It it all depends on the person, but it is generally the type of thing that you need some maintenance or upkeep. Now, I'm not you know suggesting that you gotta go three days a week for the rest of your life, but but I don't know why it's viewed differently than let's say the gym. If you go to the gym one time a week, your your your your benefits will be minimal, if any. You need to have consistency and and and repetitiveness. The same is true for for having your spine aligned. You know, there's a there's a number of things that require multiple visits or or consistency, and and chiropractic care is is one of them. But most of my patients will come in the beginning at you know uh an aggressive rate if they're having some sort of you know major problem, but then they wean off and we do more of a wellness um maintenance program with them.

Doug Drohan 12:13

Yeah, yeah. And do you you look at somebody on the street when you're walking on when you're in the store or whatever, and you look at their pasture and you look at the way they're holding their backpack or whatever, and you're like, oh my god, they're like, you know, they need an adjustment. I can tell the way they're walking or holding their shoulder, or one side's lower than the other. I mean, can you help yourself from not like evaluating every single person that you see and it comes in contact with you?

Building A NYC Practice Through Wellness

Mark Goldstein 12:36

As a chiropractor, I think most of I think most of us do evaluate that, but it's not even just a posture thing, it's when you palpate the spine, which means you feel with intent to diagnose, and when you're touching that, you you just feel the misalignments, and you know if someone's uh yeah misaligned or have something like I mentioned earlier called a subluxation.

Doug Drohan 12:55

Right, right.

Mark Goldstein 12:56

So were you did you always work for yourself or did you when you before what's that? No, I'm I said you've been adjusted too, Doug. Is that is that correct?

Doug Drohan 13:06

I have, yeah, I have. And my wife goes on a regular basis. Um, but uh so have you always worked for somebody else, or have you uh I mean, have you always worked for yourself? Uh or have you always as it would start off when you graduated, you worked for a different practice and you went off on your own.

Mark Goldstein 13:23

When I graduated, I worked for practice in Queens. And I've worked for a couple people throughout the years, but for the most part, it was a good story. Like one of my closest friends on earth, he went to chiropractic school with me and college with me, and we decided to open a uh physical medicine and rehabilitation uh center in the garment center of New York and also in Hell's Kitchen. And the city was was great. There's just so many opportunities and so many people. And um, you literally can have two or three out of lock and and and have uh you know, fleth of of of potential patients. But that was years ago, and we were very uh blessed at that point because we were doing these corporate wellness programs. We were going into companies and sort of educating them about the benefits of physical rehab and chiropractic. And some of the companies we went to were huge, like Google, like Amtrak and Verizon, and it would just we get a steady flow of of patients through them. They'd recommend us, and nice. That's how we built our practice.

Doug Drohan 14:36

Nice. How long did you have that practice?

Mark Goldstein 14:40

Um, I had it for about 16 years, and then I sold it to him.

Doug Drohan 14:44

Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You know, when I worked in Manhattan, I worked near um I worked in Manhattan. I worked in Midtown on Madison than I worked on in Times Square. So I was, you know, Hell's Kitchen. But most of my pretty much all of my medical um, you know, doctors I had were in the city because it was just more convenient for me to go during my lunch hour to go to the dentist who had an office up near Carnegie Hall or you know, whatever it was to find somebody that was near, you know, Times Square, Midtown, Hell's Kitchen, because it, you know, by the time I got home, I wasn't going to the doctor. I'd have to, you know, and I didn't want to waste my weekend sitting in a doctor's office. So Manhattan was was great because, yeah, to your point, you could find a ton of people, but the challenge was finding the right person because you know you could go on whatever it was, Zach Doc, or all these different things, and you see, you know, yeah, between 42nd and 49th Street, there might be a hundred chiropractors to choose. So, you know, who do I choose? Um, you sold the practices for 16 years, and then you know, where what'd you do after that? You kind of sit back and count your money, and you know, it wasn't even that much.

Work From Home And Concierge Health

Mark Goldstein 16:00

It's not, you know, unfortunately, this profession doesn't reward you like some of these other financial professions, there was nothing like that. Um, I just took a little uh uh uh breather, you know, recharged my battery, so to speak. I got involved in a couple other businesses that I thought I might be interested in, and it turned out that I just it didn't it didn't get me going, it didn't really do it for me. So I got back into the chiropractic world. And aside from doing my concierge service, I'm also working uh as a chiropractor for another excellent chiropractor uh in Woodbridge, New Jersey, and in Newark, New Jersey, and that's what occupies my time. But getting back to your pre previous point, you're exactly right. That that's the challenge that that I kind of foresee myself facing. People in the city, it was so convenient for them to come on their lunch hour when you're in in the suburbs, it it's more of a challenge. Um, that yeah, that's why the concierge model I'm I'm thinking is going to resonate with people because no one, like you said, wants to spend their weekends in in the uh doctor's office.

Doug Drohan 17:05

I mean, post-COVID, I mean, a lot of people don't go to the city every single day anymore. Some are lucky enough to not have to go much at all, some gonna have to go three days a week. So I'm always shocked when I drive past a golf course in the middle of the day and it's packed. And you know, like the public courses um ever since COVID, they're they're always packed. And I'm like, okay, I get people working from home, but you're working from home. Like, you know, you take an a break to go to the doctor for an hour. That's that's your lunch hour. You uh go for a run or you go to the gym, that's an hour. People playing golf for four hours. I'm like, how do they do this, man? And and I I play golf. You can't work and play golf, you can't take phone calls, you know. You you you know, so I don't know, I don't get it, but the point I'm getting at is I guess to your benefit, not you know, the commuting culture is not what it once was. So the days that people are working from home, maybe those are the days they can schedule their uh their medical care, including somebody coming to do you know the chiropractic adjustment. So yeah, that's great.

Mark Goldstein 18:12

Yeah, well, it doesn't take that long. It's it's it's it's I'm in and out in about a half hour. Uh you can always find time for that. But as far as the golf course is concerned, I think a lot of people would disagree with you. There's so many uh businesses that benefit or get enriched by spending that four hours trapping someone for four hours on a golf course.

How To Reach Dr Goldstein

Doug Drohan 18:31

Well, if yeah, if you're playing with them, I I mean the ones that are playing and they're you know working from home and they're you know they're trying to take phone calls. I mean, I've tried that. It doesn't you piss off everybody you're playing with, and you you know, I gotta put the phone down, put the phone down, swing, hit a shot, pick the phone back up. You know, it's tough. Uh so how do how do people get in touch with you? Like what what's the best way to reach you if they wanted you to you know come to their home and get it get an assessment and an adjustment?

Mark Goldstein 19:00

Yeah, that's a great question. Um well on one just one second. I'm in trouble with my camera here.

Doug Drohan 19:13

Oh, that's okay. You can you can keep talking.

Mark Goldstein 19:20

Are you still with me?

Doug Drohan 19:21

Yeah, so why don't you keep talking?

Mark Goldstein 19:26

Oh, okay. Yeah, they can email me at njhomevisit at gmail.com. Um but also I don't mind that they reach out to me directly. You know, um my phone number is 917-533-3197, and I respond to text pretty uh efficiently. I'll get right back to you. And then we set something up, um and it's that simple. It really is not that challenging. I have an Instagram account right now, NJ Home Visit, and um once I get cooking, I'm gonna the website should be up by next week, and I'm off to the races.

Doug Drohan 20:09

Great. And the and the website is https://njhomevisit.com/. That's right.

Mark Goldstein 20:14

That's right.

Doug Drohan 20:15

All right. Well, Dr. Goldstein, thank you very much for being a guest on the show. This is uh it's very interesting. I um I think you know the the concierge in home, you know, back in the old days with Dr. Welby, Marcus Welby, MD, and all that. Come to somebody's home. It's it's nice. I'm sure people appreciate it.

Mark Goldstein 20:33

Yeah, I'm certainly hoping so.

Doug Drohan 20:35

Yeah. All right, well, hang on. Chuck, say goodbye, and and you and I'll be right back.

Intro/Close 20:43

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen.com. That's gnpbergen.com or call 201 298 8325.