Pilot Study Will Examine
The Cost Savings of Chiropractic

This section is compiled by Frank M. Painter, D.C.
Send all comments or additions to:    Frankp@chiro.org

FROM:   eACA Today November 2002

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ACA has approved plans to hire a national actuarial firm to conduct a pilot study on the cost savings of chiropractic care. While other studies in the past have attempted to address this topic, the proposed approach would be based on a true actuarial model that speaks directly to the bottom line of insurance companies.

Employers and insurers faced with premium increases of 20 to 25 percent and higher are begging for solutions to rising costs. Now is an opportune time for the chiropractic profession to leverage what it does best: returning patients to health in a natural, wellness-based way, while eliminating the primary drivers to increased spending--outpatient surgery costs, pharmaceuticals and emergency room expenses.

Noted chiropractic clinician and researcher Dr. John Triano will provide research oversight on the project, including methodology and data element selection, among other things. Dr. George McClelland, ACA Executive Committee member, and Dr. David Herd, chairman of the ACA Chiropractic Value Statement Subcommittee, will also lend their input to the project. Dr. John Gentile, chairman of the ACA Insurance and Managed Care Committee, and other leaders from this committee were instrumental in recommending the project to the ACA Board of Governors and moving it forward.

As the pilot study bears out sound methodology, a full study will be conducted to give the chiropractic profession hard data to put in front of benefit managers and the actuarial departments of insurance companies, major employers and managed care networks. One goal of the study is to persuade payers to stop paying for more traditional forms of care that do not work and to switch to a patient-favored and value-added set of chiropractic benefits as core insurance benefits. Results of the pilot study should be available by the end of the first quarter of 2003.

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