The Evidence Continues to Mount for Chiropractors as Primary Care Providers
Research data continues to build in favor of chiropractors being the Primary Care Provider (PCP) of choice for Americans. The reason: when chiropractors serve as the gate keeper of a managed care network there are substantial cost savings and decreased utilization of additional medical services as compared to PCPs using conventional medicine alone.
This latest research data comes on the heels of a study published in 2004 that showed similar results. The first study collected data from 1999 though 2002 with the expanded study done from 2003 to 2005. The lead investigators for both studies were Richard Sarnat, MD and James Winterstein, DC.
The basic idea behind the Chiropractic PCP model was to create an integrative system of health care using PCPs who specialized in non-pharmaceutical and non-surgical approaches compared to a traditional HMO system. An independent provider association known as Alternative Medicine Integration Group (AMI) served as the Chiropractic-lead provider.
The recent analysis supports the original findings in that patients who enroll in a Chiropractic-run network experienced a myriad of positive results in comparison to patients in an HMO monitored program. These included fewer hospital visits, less time spent in a hospital for care and being subjected to fewer surgeries. Additionally, they used far fewer pharmaceuticals than traditional HMO patients analyzed for the survey, resulting in lower utilization costs.
For the entire 7-year study period from 1999 to 2005, Chiropractic-lead AMI members had 60% fewer hospitalizations, 62% fewer outpatient surgical cases and 85% lower pharmaceutical costs than HMO members. Incidentally, chiropractors also had higher patient satisfaction scores, too.
Here’s what Dr. Sarnat had to say about the findings: “I have always believed that the over-utilization of pharmaceuticals and surgery, and the underutilization of more natural healing techniques, such as Chiropractic, has been the cause of great suffering. Yet, I had no idea that the magnitude of both clinical improvements and cost effectiveness would approach 50% in both cases.
“Previous studies have shown these types of savings when Chiropractic has been used as a first-line treatment for NMS (neuromusculoskeletal) ailments, instead of conventional medical care. But to see this level of effectiveness across the board for literally all types of clinical presentations within a primary care setting is surprising to me, and good news for the rest of the world.”