Chiropractic + Managed Care Plans

Chiropractic inclusion in Managed care plans saves money: A 4 year study conducted by researchers from the company American Specialty Health Plans, Inc. reviewed the health care utilization of 1.7 million people enrolled in a California managed-care plan. Approximately 1 million of the people had chiropractic coverage while the other 700,000 did not. The results showed that the total health care costs for people in the plans with chiropractic coverage were 12% lower than those without chiropractic coverage. The cost of treating people with low back pain was 28% lower in the group with chiropractic coverage. Chiropractic care reduced hospitalizations among back pain patients by 41% and reduced back surgeries by 32%. Chiropractic care reduced the cost of medical imaging by 37%. These results were reported in papers presented at the Research Agenda Conference held in March 2003 and were published in the October 2004 issue of the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine.