Expanding Chiropractic in Medicare

I just read an interesting article in Dynamic Chiropractic about expanding the role of chiropractic in Medicare.

The final report for the chiropractic demonstration project by the federal government has finally been released. The purpose of the study was to determine whether it was feasible to expanding chiropractic coverage in the Medicare program. The project was mandated under section 651 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003.

Medicare patients gave chiropractors high marks when rating their satisfaction with care. In a report from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from 2005 through 2007, 87% of patients surveyed gave their chiropractor a score of 8 or higher when asked to rate their satisfaction with care (1-10 scale), and 56% percent rated their chiropractor a perfect 10. Moreover, healthcare costs did not increase significantly with the addition of chiropractic services.

Other key findings in the report included:

· The most frequent reason for care favorable earlier experiences (59%) and insufficient relief of symptoms (39%).

· Clinical problems included back pain 78%, neck pain 50%, hip problems 38% and shoulder problems 32%.

· 60% of respondents indicated that they received “complete” relief of their symptoms or “a lot of relief of symptoms from chiropractic treatments.”

The conclusions are that Medicare is cost-effective and has a high patient satisfaction level and chiropractic benefits should be increased in the Medicare system. Hopefully, chiropractic will play a prominent role in the upcoming healthcare reforms just passed!!

The entire report can been reviewed at www.acatoday.org/pdf/demo_report.pdf