Chiropractic care associated with lower medical costs and more rapid recovery

"Chiropractic care is associated with lower medical costs and more rapid recovery...[in] workers' compensation," according to a study of the costs in the Texas workers' compensation system on approximately 900,000 workers' compensation claims filed from 1996 to 2001. The study was done by the national research/consulting firm MGT of America who noted "chiropractic costs were the lowest in the state's workers' compensation system:

• Lower back and neck injuries accounted for 38 percent of all claims costs. Chiropractors treated about 30 percent of workers with lower back injuries, but were responsible for only 17.5 percent of the medical costs and 9.1 percent of the total costs not including the costs of pharmaceuticals. If those costs were included, the percentage of costs related to chiropractic care would have been even lower.
• The average claim for a worker with a low-back injury was $15,884. However, if a worker received at least 75 percent of his or her care from a chiropractor, the total cost per claimant decreased by nearly one-fourth to $12,202. If the chiropractor provided at least 90 percent of the care, the average cost declined by more than 50 percent, to $7,632."

Reference: Chiropractic Treatment of Workers' Compensation Claimants in the State of Texas. Submitted to the Texas Chiropractic Association by MGT of America, Austin, Texas, February 2003. For a more complete synopsis of the study, click here.