An article printed in the the Journal for Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (Volume 30, Issue 4, Pages 263-269, May 2007) analyzed clinical and cost utilization data over a 7 year period. How is this cost analysis different? They allowed people to pick doctors of chiropractic and other alternative providers as their primary care physicians.
Here’s what the data showed: decreases of 60.2% in-hospital admissions, 59% hospital days, 62% outpatient sugeries and procedures and 85% pharmaceutical costs when compared with conventional medicine IPA performance for the same HMO product in the same geography and time frame.
Wow! Certainly food for thought as we move into how to spread the health care dollars around.