Which Treatment Route Costs More - Chiropractic Care or Medical Care

This week we are looking at something on everyone's mind (especially if you live in the US!) ... healthcare costs.

Did you know that in the US, we spend $134.5 billion EACH YEAR on the costs related to spinal pain, particularly neck and low back!? It is a leading cause of disability around the world AND one of the most common reasons for people missing work.

So with that said ... do you think it's less expensive to receive care, for spinal pain, from a chiropractor or the medical management route?

This study, published in 2024, looked into whether or not chiropractic treatment really was less expensive than medical management for adults with spine pain. In total, they looked at 54 studies and some of the researchers involved with this study were from the field of chiropractic, others were not.

To get to the point very quickly ... chiropractic care has lower overall healthcare costs compared to the medical field.

A list of some of the reasons why chiropractic care is less expensive ...

• Lower overall costs with chiropractic care, none of the studies found a higher overall cost.

• Chiropractors tend to order/utilize less advanced imaging (MRI, CT).

• Patients who saw chiropractors were less likely to be prescribed opioids. Chiropractors cannot prescribe, which is likely part of this finding.

• Most of the studies found reduced costs for chiropractic visits, as well as chiropractors have lower insurance and compensation payments.

• Long term and per episode - the studies found lower healthcare costs when patients saw a chiropractor instead of a medical doctor.

• Patients who were seeing chiropractors were less likely to be hospitalized, have surgery, visit the ER, see a specialist, or receive injections.

• Those who saw chiropractors also had less downstream costs which refers to many things already listed, but also things like decreased quality of life, mental health or psychological difficulties, addiction to opioids, inability to work, etc.

In short ... seeing a chiropractor for spine pain has the potential to save a considerable amount of money and there may be benefits in making it easier for patients to see chiropractors. The study listed some of the challenges to this as being "...medical doctor gatekeepers, arbitrary visit limits, co-pays and deductibles..."

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10918856/

Blog sponsored by One More Step Foundation

This is not medical advice, always ask a chiropractor if chiropractic care is appropriate for you, and your preferred healthcare provider before making dietary, supplement, or lifestyle changes.