Did you know that the US Government has been closely looking at complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)? In fact there is an entire department over at the NIH ( national institutes of health) that do nothing but study CAM. The white house has a special commission that has been tasked to Study CAM as well. Chiropractic used to be a part of this conversation, but to my surprise we have been slowly leaving the CAM discussion for the past 7 years. This trend started back in 2001. See below:
Archive
WHITE HOUSE COMMISSION
on
COMPLEMENTARY and ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE POLICY
Meeting Topic I:
CAM: Understanding Coverage and Reimbursement
and
Meeting Topic II:
CAM: Research Challenges
Volume I
Monday, May 14 2001
8:00 a.m.
Excerpt
Dr Alen Korn:" I would like to clarify that the Association does not consider chiropractic services to be complementary or alternative for the purpose of this statement. I believe that chiropractic has become a stakeholder in the politically dominate health system of the United States. The NIH Office of Alternative Medicine defines complementary and alternative medicine as healing resources outside the politically dominant system.”
MR. PIZZORNO**: Dr. Korn, you made a very provocative statement that I would like you to address further. You said you do not consider chiropractic part of CAM anymore, that is part of the dominant health care system at this point. Why do you think that and what was the transition that chiropractic went through?
DR. KORN*: The chiropractors have gone through a very painful transition and one that I would wish none of you would have to do. It is obviously a very complex topic that I will try to summarize at a very, very high level.
What we have observed over the past many years, four or five really, and we have really actually come to understand quite clearly through some direct discussions with the American Chiropractic Association, is the profession has evolved in a way that we find to be quite intriguing.
They have now adopted in large measure a collaborative model of care, in which what the chiropractic community offers is merged with what the allopathic and osteopathic communities offer. And you have a unique opportunity we see here in blending all of the science often rendered by physicians, who sort of stand behind a medical record, it gets between them and the patient, and another body of physicians, and that is how chiropractors are defined in most states, who really are very expert in hands-on care, nutritional counseling, lifestyle things. What we have observed, the data would suggest that with that kind of an approach, patients are far more likely to change their behavior, to not smoke, to lose weight, to exercise, to eat properly than being told to do so by someone sitting on the other side of the desk, writing a progress note in a allopathic office.
So, we could talk a great deal more about it, but we have become impressed with the contribution that that model of care has in the global picture. Again, that is overlaid on a long history and many other things, but that is why, at this point, it probably makes sense to put them outside of the CAM circle.
** Joseph E. Pizzorno, Jr., N.D., appointed by President Clinton in December 2000 to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and by President Bush¹s administration to the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee in November 2002, is one of the world¹s leading authorities on science-based natural medicine.
Allan Korn, M.D., is Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), a national federation of 39 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that collectively provide healthcare coverage for more than 99 million – nearly one-in-three of all Americans.
So, There you have it according t the chief medical officer of blue cross blue shiel chiropractic is no longer "alternitive" But rather part of the "mainstream."
