https://chiromt.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12998-024-00533-4
It's that time of the year where the infamous insurance deductibles kick in again, and with it the frustrating realization of how expensive Healthcare is in the US. I tend not to talk about it very much in my room to focus on patient clinical care, but making decisions about health care sometimes brings up that discussion as patients are having to strategize and prioritize seemingly infinite healthcare cost on a finite budget.
As our own household has seen our deductible soaring to new heights, I have found myself a little more capable of engaging those discussions with a sympathetic ear and a nod of solidarity.
This particular research article on the cost of healthcare comparing traditional medical point of entry versus chiropractic care point of entry for multiple common neuromuscular skeletal problems was quite enlightening in several ways.
-The cost of chiropractic care itself tended to be on the lower end for the initial course of care, although not by a whole lot if you compare side by side the first six weeks of care.
- the overall cost of care downstream meaning for the months and years after the initial course of care was however strikingly lower in patients who started their health journey through the chiropractic point of entry. This was primarily because the secondary medical costs associated with imaging, medication, other mid level and surgical interventions was significantly reduced. In practical terms this means that starting to address your issue by working with a chiropractor means that you're less likely to escalate to need a variety of other expensive services. This is something that has often been reported to me by patients: working through things conservatively with a chiropractor on the front end meant they were able to manage it pretty well in that manner in the long term.
- interesting tidbit that's buried somewhere in the research paper is the fact that there is quite a range of chiropractic cost. Meaning that not all providers are created equal and how well they manage a problem from a financial perspective. This is noteworthy as well, meaning that you need to look at individual providers and their track records to make sure you're not working with an outlier.