Chiropractic Care Can Reduce Medicare Costs!

Patients constantly ask me, “Why doesn’t insurance, and especially Medicare, pay for maintenance care?  Prevention is always cheaper than cure.” That statement is correct, and now there is proof.

An interesting study was performed recently by Muse and Associates, an actuarial consulting firm based in Washington, DC. They reviewed Medicare claims of patients who regularly received chiropractic treatments compared to those who did not.  It was discovered that among those who were treated regularly by the chiropractor, the medical costs other than chiropractic charges averaged 48% less than those who did not seek chiropractic care.

While the final calculations and conclusions are not yet available, it is obvious that some overall reduction in Medicare costs could be realized by reimbursing for monthly chiropractic maintenance treatments. For more detailed information regarding this study read here and here.

I realize that almost every treatment regimen in the world, mainstream and alternative, claims to have the answer to lowering healthcare, particularly Medicare, costs, and insists  that they should be the exception to the maintenance care rule. In this case the difference is that there is hard evidence to back up the claim. If you feel that regular chiropractic care should be included in Medicare, contact your senators and representative and refer them to this study.

Getting rid of your pain,

Dr. Steven Ray, Chiropractor

Val Vista Chiropractic

What Have I Done to Deserve This?

The questions I am most frequently asked include:  I’ve only been hurting for a week, why do I have to keep getting treatments?, Why do the vertebrae keep going out of place?, Why am I still hurting?, etc. An illustration is in order.

When you wake up one morning with a toothache, you go to the dentist and he finds a hole in your tooth.  Does he say, “You ate CANDY last night, didn’t you?” NO! He asks instead, “What have you been doing for the last SIX months?” Our spines are no different than our teeth – when we begin feeling the pain, the problem has already been around for a long time.

Vertebrae can only go out of place when the soft-tissue support structures have been damaged. The muscles, tendons, ligaments, discs, and other connective tissues are stretched and torn during a traumatic incident which allows the vertebrae slip out of their normal alignment.

Soft tissues never heal back to 100% -- it is always some percentage less. As a ridiculous example, if a muscle cell is damaged badly enough that it cannot be repaired, it is not replaced with another muscle cell, but by scar tissue. Scar tissue is not as flexible as muscle tissue, and contributes nothing to the strength of the muscle, and so it is now one cell weaker than it was before the injury. In the event of future trauma, that area of muscle, being weaker and less flexible, is more likely to be re-injured than the remaining healthy muscles.

Additionally, if the vertebrae are out of their correct position as the soft tissues are healing, the final positioning will be causing irritation to the nerve roots, which leads to body pain and organ malfunction. Placing the vertebrae into their correct position initially only confuses the body and it will actually pull the vertebrae out of place again in less than 48 hours. The body can be retrained to hold them in place again for some length of time, but this can only be achieved if they are IN PLACE more than they are OUT OF PLACE during this process.

As you can see, the sooner after an injury that chiropractic treatments are begun, the faster and more effective the healing will be, but it is never too late to help the body to improve itself. Our bodies have miraculous recuperative abilities when given the proper encouragement and support, and many conditions that the medical doctors have told us we will have to live with can be improved or eliminated.

At Val Vista Chiropractic we have the knowledge and ability to give your body its best chance for a healthy and pain-free life, all done the natural way, without drugs or surgery. Come in today and discover what we can do for you.

Getting rid of your pain,

Dr. Steven Ray, Chiropractor

Val Vista Chiropractic

What is Chiropractic? – Part 2

Chiropractic is a clinical discipline for health and a clinical science based upon:

The law of biology called Homeostasis.  This law states that there is born within an organism an ability to remain stable and healthy, within itself, and within its environment.

The theory of physiology that there is a system, called the nervous system, consisting of the brain, spinal cord, cranial and spinal nerves, autonomic nervous system, and other special sense organs, such as the eye and ear, whose function it is to control and coordinate all other organs and structures, and to relate the organism to it's environment.

The hypothesis that there is a relationship between the health, harmony and control of the nervous system, and health in the total body.

The premise or conjecture of a relationship between the musculoskeletal systems and the nervous system.  That is, faulty musculoskeletal relationships can cause faulty nervous system function, and thereby a loss of health.

To interpret – Chiropractic care is based upon the scientific principles:

The law that our body is designed to take care of itself.

The theory that the nervous system controls and coordinates all functions within the body.

The hypothesis that the body can only be healthy if the nervous system is functioning properly.

The premise that musculoskeletal problems can cause the nervous system to malfunction.

The medical and chiropractic paradigms are in complete harmony regarding these statements. The opinions differ over whether the musculoskeletal system problems can be sufficiently corrected by external influences to allow the nervous system to resume normal function.

As chiropractors, we find that a large majority of health problems include a component of spinal misalignment, and that when these areas are realigned properly the health problems are spontaneously healed, even in the absence of medications or surgery. At Val Vista Chiropractic our goal is for all of our patients to be healthy and pain-free, and to accomplish this in the least-invasive approach possible. Come in to Val Vista Chiropractic today to see how chiropractic can help you feel better.

Getting rid of your pain,

Dr. Steven Ray, Chiropractor

Val Vista Chiropractic