Work Injury Facts

Groundbreaking Study Reveals that Employees with Chiropractic Coverage Incur Significantly Fewer Back Surgeries, Hospitalizations and Treatment Costs 

   Thanks to   Benefits Marketing Assoc for permission to reproduce this article!

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 12, 2004--   Employers who offer chiropractic health plan benefits to their employees can realize significant reductions in employee utilization and overall treatment costs for back pain as compared to employers who do not offer such coverage, according to a new study published in the October issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.  This is the first study to definitively link chiropractic benefits to reductions in healthcare utilization and costs.

The study concluded that employees with chiropractic health plan coverage, as compared to those without, incurred a 41 percent reduction in hospitalizations for back pain and a 32 percent reduction in back surgeries.  In addition, the study showed that those with chiropractic health plan coverage incurred a 37 percent reduction in the use of highly expensive CT/MRI scans for back problems and a 23 percent reduction in the use of x-rays.  Overall, the cost per episode of treating back pain was 28 percent less for employees with chiropractic health plan coverage than for those without coverage.

The study, sponsored by American Specialty Health (ASH) of San Diego and conducted by independent health services research organization Health Benchmarks Inc., is the largest ever done comparing back treatment costs for individuals with and without chiropractic health plan coverage.  Covering four-years of retrospective claims data, the study compared over 700,000 health plan members with chiropractic coverage to 1 million members of the same health plan who had no chiropractic coverage.

"Prior to this no study had ever linked chiropractic benefits to lower utilization levels in a real-world employee setting," said co-investigator Douglas Metz, D.C., chief health services officer for American Specialty Health.  "Our study shows that systematic access to managed chiropractic care may prove to be not only clinically beneficial but can reduce key cost factors that drive up employer health costs in traditional care settings.

"A key reason for the reduction in overall healthcare expenses is that most chiropractic care is a direct substitution for more expensive medical care, according to other study findings which we published in the August issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine," added Dr. Metz. "In short, use of chiropractic care does not result in additional resource utilization to the healthcare system."

"This study demonstrates that chiropractic coverage can be a powerful cost containment tool for employers and health plans that are struggling to keep the lid on escalating costs," said George DeVries, president and chief executive officer of American Specialty Health.

In the United States back pain is the second leading cause for physician visits and is second only to childbirth for hospitalizations.  It is also the most prevalent chronic medical condition and the number one cause of long-term disability.  Back pain, headache, arthritis and musculoskeletal disorders combine to cost employers $61 billion per year in lost productive time alone, according to a 2003 study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Wait - There's More!

A number of workers' compensation studies have shown chiropractic care to be superior to medical care in the treatment of on the job back injuries.  Chiropractors have been able to get their patients out of pain and back to work faster and with lower treatment costs.

Chiropractic Therapeutic Effectiveness Incidence in Absence from Work and Hospitalization, Milan Italy, 1978 - A two year Italian government-sponsored survey of 17,142 patients over a two-year period showed that chiropractic care reduced hospitalization by 87.6%, and work loss by 75.5%.  The study involves chiropractors and 22 medical back-pain clinics and was done in cooperation with leading universities, which provided scholars with Ph.D.’s to be used as independent referees to record the results over the course of the study.

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The Australian Study - cost & pain-relief effective with a lower chronicity rate.

Australian Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Workers Compensation, Center for Chiropractic Research 1991 - The study compared chiropractic with medicine in the treatment of work-related low back injuries without fractures.  There were 998 chiropractic cases and 998 medical cases drawn at random from a group of 3,712 patients.  The average cost in the chiropractic care was $392 where is the average cost under medical care was $1569, and the time loss under chiropractic care was 6.25 days compared to 25.56 days under the medical care — getting chiropractic a 4:1 superiority in both effectiveness and time lost from work.

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Cost per Case Comparison of Back Injury Claims of Chiropractic versus medical Management for Conditions with Identical Diagnostic Codes. Jarvis KB, et al. Journal of Occupational Medicine - 1991;33:847-52. The Utah Study - fewer costs and days lost.  This 1988 Utah workers' compensation board study found a tenfold savings for mean compensation costs in back-related injuries treated by chiropractors as compared with medical doctors ($68.38 vs. $668.39). To ensure accurate and true results, only those back-related injuries with the same diagnostic codes were compared between the two treatment groups. Also, the medical treatments assessed were limited to nonsurgical medical treatments only.

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The Florida Study - shorter disability/lower costs/lower hospitalization rates

An Analysis of Florida Workers' Compensation Medical Claims for Back Related Injuries. Wolk S. Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research, Arlington, VA. - 1988.  This large State of Florida study examined 10,652 patients who sustained back-related injuries on the job.  Their findings revealed that individuals who received chiropractic care compared with standard medical care for similar diagnoses experienced had a 51.3 percent shorter temporary total disability duration lower treatment cost by 58.8 percent ($558 vs. $1,100 per case) 20.3 percent hospitalization rate in the chiropractic care group vs. 52.2 percent rate in the medical care group.

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The California Study - chiropractic patients get back to work sooner.

Industrial Back Injury. Wolf CR. International Review of Chiropractic - 1974;26:6-7.  In this study, Richard Wolf, M.D. followed 500 individuals sent for chiropractic treatments and 500 individuals sent to medical doctors for treatment. Those who received chiropractic treatments returned to work in an average of 15.6 days vs. 32 days in those who received treatments from medical doctors.

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The Oregon Study - chiropractic gets individuals back to work, and fast!

A Study of Time Loss Back Claims. Portland, OR. Workers' Compensation Board, State of Oregon, March 1971.  This Oregon study found that individuals with workers' compensation claims returned to work significantly faster under chiropractic care compared with medical care.  In fact, under chiropractic care 82% were able to return to work after one week compared with only 41% in those who received medical care.

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The Manga Report - back to work, and fast.

The Effectiveness and Cost Effectiveness of Chiropractic Management of Low-Back Pain (The Manga Report). Pran Manga and Associates (1993) - University of Ottawa, Canada.  According to this Canadian government commissioned study, ...injured workers ... diagnosed with low-back pain returned to work much sooner when treated by chiropractors than by physicians."

Bellingham's Life Chiropractic offers these summaries in order to demonstrate a chiropractic track record relating to injured workers' function and health recovery.  Therefore, any industry/company/organization determined to cut work-loss injury time and related Labor & Industry premium expenses really should take a close look at this undeniable track record. Our ProAdjuster computerized chiropractic instrument technology produces safe, comfortable, effective, and repeatable treatments for those of any age and for a variety of musculoskeletal injuries.