Groundbreaking research continues to build the case for chiropractic care as a cost-effective solution for spine-related musculoskeletal pain. A recent systematic review by the Clinical Compass, voted the top published article for 2024 by Chiropractic and Manual Therapies, analyzed economic studies, randomized controlled trials, and observational studies. Its powerful conclusion? Patients initially seeing a chiropractor for spine pain consistently incur substantially decreased downstream healthcare services and associated costs compared to those receiving medical management.
This translates to lower overall healthcare costs, including reduced insurance and long-term expenses. The reasons are clear: chiropractic care is associated with lower rates of diagnostic imaging, opioid prescriptions, surgeries, injections, specialist visits, ER visits, and hospitalizations. These findings mirror a similar analysis from 2015. The review strongly recommends that U.S. healthcare organizations and governmental agencies consider modifying benefit designs to reduce barriers to accessing chiropractic providers, such as pre-authorization, gatekeepers, visit limits, co-pays, and deductibles, to realize these cost-saving benefits.
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