Care Cost
Fewer Work Days Lost With Chiropractic Management
Ebrall, P.S. "Mechanical Low-Back Pain: A Comparison of Medical and Chiropractic Management Within the Victorian WorkCare Scheme," Chiropractic Journal of Australia, June 1992, Volume 22, Number 2, Pages 47-53.
This retrospective workers’ compensation study in Australia compared chiropractic and medical management of 1,996 cases of work-related mechanical low-back pain. The number of compensation days taken by claimants was found to be significantly lower; an average of 6.26 days for chiropractic patients and 25.56 days for medical patients. The average cost of compensation was $392 for chiropractic management and $1,569 for medical management-or four times greater than chiropractic management.
Their findings were:
Comparison demonstrated that (9 a significant reduction was seen in the number of claimants requiring compensation days when chiropractic care was chosen. (ii) fewer compensation days were taken by claimants who chose chiropractic care, (iii) more patients progressed to chronic status when medical care was chosen, and (iv) the average payment per claim was greater with medical management.
The financial and social savings inherent in the chiropractic approach could be maximized by;
- an increased participation rate by chiropractors in the WorkCare system, and
- increased early referral of claimants with MLBP [Mechanical Low Back Pain] by medical practitioners to chiropractors.
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Lower Compensation Costs And Fewer Work Days Lost With Chiropractic Care
Jarvis, K.B., Phillips, R.B., et al. "Cost per Case Comparison of Back Injury Claims of Chiropractic versus Medical Management for Conditions with Identical Diagnostic Codes," Journal of Occupational Medicine, August 2991, Volume 33, Number 8, Pages 847-52.
This study examined cost comparisons between medical and chiropractic providers for back-related injuries with identical diagnostic codes. It concluded that compensation costs for work time lost were an astonishing $68.38 for patients who received chiropractic care, compared to $668.39 for patients who received standard, non-surgical medical treatment. The number of work days lost under medical care was nearly ten times higher for those receiving chiropractic care.
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Shorter Disability and Lower Related Costs for Chiropractic Patients
Wolk, S. Chiropractic versus Medical Care: A Cost Analysis of Disability and Treatment for Back-Related Workers’ Compensation Cases. Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research, Arlington, Virginia, September 1988.
This major study examined 10, 652 closed cases of patients with back-related injuries who were covered by Florida’s workers’ compensation law to compare chiropractic case management with standard medical case management. The results indicated that the duration of temporary total disability was 51.3 percent shorter for chiropractic patients, the cost of chiropractic service was 58.8 percent lower, and 52.2 percent of medical patient claimants were hospitalized compared to only 20.3 percent of chiropractic patients.
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Economist Concludes Mandated Insurance For Chiropractic Is Cost Effective
Schifrin, L.G. Mandated Health Insurance Coverage for Chiropractic Treatment: An Economic Assessment, with Implications for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, and Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, January 1992.
The exhaustive study of mandated health insurance coverage and the economic impact of chiropractic coverage revealed the following:
The low cost impact of chiropractic is due not to its low rate of use, but to its apparently offsetting impacts on costs in the face of high rates of utilization. Chiropractic is a growing component of the health care sector, and it is widely used by the population.
Formal studies of the cost, effectiveness, or both of chiropractic, usually measured against other forms of treatment, show it to compare favorably with them.
By every test of cost and effectiveness, the general weight of evidence shows chiropractic to provide important therapeutic benefits, at economical costs. Additionally, these benefits are achieved with apparently minimal, even negligible, impacts on the costs of health insurance.
The conclusion of this analysis is that chiropractic mandates help make available health care that is widely used by the American public and has proven to be cost-effective.
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Chiropractic May Be First Choice For Several Low-Back Conditions
Dean, D.H., Schmidt, R.M. A Comparison of the Costs of Chiropractors versus Alternative Medical Practitioners, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 13 January 1992.
This economic analysis concluded that:
... chiropractic care is a lower cost option for several prominent back-related ailments. This is despite ifs "last resort" status for many patients. One explanation for this is fhe lower insurance coverage of chiropractic care. If chiropractic care is insured to the extent other specialties are stipulated, it may emerge as a first option for patients with certain medical conditions. This could very well result in a decrease in overall treatment costs for these conditions.
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