Insurers Pushing Drugs for Pain Management, Ignoring Successful Alternative Treatments.

PositionWC UPDATE

Following our July focus on WC issues, here we have an alternate viewpoint on opioid use: current insurance models continue to push for opioid and NSAID drug treatment for pain management, despite the spreading opioid abuse epidemic. Successful alternative medicine clinic owner JinLi Wang points to treatments for chronic pain including chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy, which treats pain with few side effects while improving function.--SA

Opioid abuse has become a serious public health concern reaching epidemic levels in the United States. Misuse of opioids accounts for over 1,000 emergency room visits every day. As many as one in 10 adults suffers from a condition causing chronic pain typically treated with prescription pain medications. Despite this news, current insurance models favor traditional pain management. JinLi Wang, Co-Founder of the chiropractic marketing group Local Marketing, LLC (www.localchiromarketing.com), indicates that current insurance models favor prescription drug treatment with opioids or NSAIDs over alternative treatments--despite the published benefits of alternative treatments.

JinLi Wang was a successful practitioner and owner of the largest and most profitable Chinese Medicine Clinic in the U.S. In communicating report findings with chiropractors, she discovered that the key missing factor in most practices was a consistent flow of new patients. Her passion for natural healthcare led her to shift her focus to helping the chiropractic profession with comprehensive marketing, something that was lacking. As natural medical professionals, chiropractors weren't familiar with the difference between marketing and sales, much less how to reach out for help in marketing their practice.

As doctors and patients look for alternatives to opioids, chiropractic marketing experts are touting the benefits that chiropractic therapy can provide. A recent study indicates that the spinal manipulative therapy used by chiropractors can provide both improvements in pain and function. Preliminary data from another study suggests that there is approximately a 56-57% reduction in opioid use when chiropractic care has been utilized in a patients treatment.

"Most insurance companies charge a much greater co-payment for visiting a chiropractor versus a...

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