27 May 2022
The Cost Efficiency of Chiropractic Care for Workers
Chiropractic care offers many benefits for employees in need of medical care for work-related injuries. Chiropractic care can include treatments that are: directly related to injuries or illnesses, preventative in nature and/or provide relief of other aches or pains because they act upon the tissues around the spine.
You may feel relief from symptoms like chronic pain with chiropractor care. Many conditions suggest farther advantages when an adjustment is obtained, including reduced risk of work-related injuries caused by a decrease in back pain. If your occupation necessitates physical exertion, there are several factors that show further advantages.
“Employee Benefits: Back Pain Relief with Neurosurgical Treatments,” published by Chiropractic Now in 2009, is an informative piece on chiropractor treatments for employee ailments.” The Central Office Clinic in Lexington, Kentucky has a chiropractor named John Fountenberry. “One of the most common reasons individuals visit a Chiropractor is work injuries,” he says.
A recent report has linked chiropractic care to lower costs for insurers and employers. The Workers’ Compensation Research Institute report indicates chiropractic care reduces medical costs. The report also states that this standard of care allows claimants to return to work more quickly when they receive sole treatment for low back pain.
Chiropractors also had lower costs when they provided physical medicine services. However, when they were responsible for the evaluation and management under other types of clinicians, the cost difference was not as severe. Chiropractic care has been recognized as a cost-effective treatment method since the early 1990s as a result of rapidly rising medical costs. This prompted states to adopt rules that controlled the cost of healthcare.
A low back guideline adopted by Colorado for example, requires functional improvement to be demonstrated after five visits and caps the total number of visits at 36. Chiropractic visits in California are limited to 24. Chiropractic visits in Oregon are limited to 12.
Chiropractic care for low back pain is typically sought more frequently by patients not covered by workers’ compensation. One study conducted by WCRI reported that 31% of patients with back pain consulted a chiropractor within a year of their injury in non-occupational settings.
In only a handful of the 28 state workers’ compensation systems studied, chiropractic care was equally prevalent for patients suffering from low back pain.
Chiropractic care for injured workers is associated with fewer drugs and diagnostic imaging scans, according to the report. Among claimants treated by chiropractors, only 1% are prescribed opioids, compared to 10.3% of those not treated by chiropractors.
According to claimants in the chiropractic group, only 4.3% underwent a magnetic-resonance imaging scan, compared with 18.9% in the non-chiropractic group.
The Cost Efficiency of Chiropractic Care
According to the study, low back pain patients treated exclusively by chiropractors for both physical medicine and evaluation and management had an average medical cost per claim of $1,366, 61 percent cheaper than low back pain patients who did not receive chiropractic treatment for $3,522.
In this annual study, prices are compared across 36 states for medical services. Price changes are monitored from 2008 to 2021. This includes just over a year of medical services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Physicians, physical therapists, chiropractors, and surgeons billed for professional services (evaluation and management, physical medicine, surgery, major and minor radiology, neurological testing, pain management injections, and emergency care).