Chiropractic Care May Reduce Surgeries, X-rays. Back Pain Treatment Less Costly With Chiropractic Care.

Chiropractic care cuts health care costs, a new study shows. The study comes from American Specialty Health Plans Inc. of San Diego. The company provides employers with health insurance coverage for complementary medicine, including chiropractic care and acupuncture.
The company compared four years of back pain claims from two groups: 700,000 health plan members with chiropractic care coverage and 1 million members with the same health plan without chiropractic care coverage. It's the largest study yet of how chiropractic care affects the cost of health care.


Costs Down, Patient Satisfaction Up With Chiropractic Care
Compared with doctor-only health plans, the study found that:

• Chiropractic care cut the cost of treating back pain by 28%.
• Chiropractic care reduced hospitalizations among back pain patients by 41%.
• Chiropractic care reduced back surgeries by 32%.
• Chiropractic care reduced the cost of medical imaging, such as X-rays or MRIs, by 37%.
  

The report appears in the Oct. 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Patients often say they are satisfied with the chiropractic care they receive, says Scott Boden, MD, director of the Emory Orthopedic and Spine Center in Atlanta. "A disease like back pain can have a lot of variability in the ways medical professionals approach patient care," Boden says. "The best thing is to have an organized, integrated approach that uses state-of-the-art and cost-effective care. Many -- if not most -- primary care providers have little training in how to manage musculoskeletal disorders. That leads to some of the costs. If you were to match a chiropractic network against trained physicians instead of general medical practitioners, you might get different results."

Chiropractic Care Entering Mainstream

This may be the first study to offer concrete evidence that chiropractic care saves money. But businesses already are getting the message, says George DeVries, president and CEO of American Specialty Health. "Since 1987, we have thousands if not tens of thousands of employer groups that offer chiropractic coverage as a supplemental insurance rider," DeVries tells WebMD. "These range from mom-and-pop groceries to top-10 businesses. The reason they continue to offer these plans is patient satisfaction and low cost." Boden says his institution is opening a new facility that will offer patients integrated medical care that will include chiropractic care. "We have everything under one roof. The finishing piece is going to be a complementary medicine center that will include chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, and probably nutrition," he says. "The bottom line is that conservative management of back care is effectively performed by doctors of chiropractic," he says. "In cases where medical intervention is needed, chiropractors are schooled to make the appropriate referrals. It is a cost-effective option for back pain."

Original article written by Daniel J. DeNoon. WebMD Health News. Oct. 12, 2004.

Dr. David P. Chen

Chiropractor

Laurel, Maryland