chair of the Maryland State Board of Acupuncture
Back in 1993 David Eisenberg, M.D., and a group of researchers from Harvard reported in the New England journal of Medicine on their findings from a telephone survey of 1,539 respondents. The team discovered that in 1990 one in three American adults relied on an unconventional treatment for a health problem. Unconventional, for this study, was defined as meaning medical interventions not taught widely at U.S. medical schools or available at U.S. hospitals. The study also reported that Americans had made more visits to alternative practitioners—425 million—than to primary care doctors— 388 million—during that year. Amazingly, these same adults shelled out more than $13.7 billion for unconventional care, three-fourths of which came from their own pockets.
This past year, a Harvard-based study of medical directors of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) in thirteen states found that chiropractic and acupuncture are the top two alternative therapies that HMOs plan to offer their members within the next one to two years.
Here are some other survey highlights:
58 percent of the respondents indicated that they plan to offer alternative care therapies to members in the next two years;
70 percent reported an increase in requests for alternative care therapies from members;
acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic were the top three therapies of interest to HMO members.
OTHER TRENDS IN ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Insurers are loosening the noose around the necks of alternative practitioners, and one of the first to change was the once conservative Blue Cross of Washington and Alaska. After conducting a series of town meetings across the state, Blue Cross launched AlternaPath, a pilot program covering naturopathy, homeopathy, and acupuncture. Enrollees paid $171 for up to $1,000 of treatment, and the pilot was limited to 1,000 subscribers. The program was filled to capacity within three months.
American Western Life of Foster City, California is another insurance company at the forefront with regard to alternative medicine. The company's wellness plan, available to individuals in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Colorado, is one of the first to offer coverage for alternative and traditional treatments.
State of Washington lawmakers passed legislation that mandated that all insurers and managed care organizations make the coverage of services for licensed alternative health care providers available to subscribers. Taking effect in January 1996, the ground-breaking Washington law set the stage for an Oregon proposal, the Healthcare Freedom Initiative, which failed on a technicality in the November 1996 elections.
Oxford Health Plans, a managed care company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, announced plans in late 1996 to become the first large medical insurer to offer a network of alternative care providers. Starting in early 1997, the Oxford Health options became available to individuals and employers in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. For employers adding the alternative option to their benefits packages, premiums will increase by about $5 to $6 a member per year.
A hotline for health care practitioners—Natural Healthcare Hotline, a service developed by the Natural Healthcare Institute—has been established to provide access to research-based information on alternative health care products.
NATION'S FIRST PUBLICLY FUNDED NATURAL
MEDICINE CLINIC: COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS
OF KING COUNTY AND BASTYR
The Community Health Centers, a national nonprofit agency that provides care for underserved populations, will house one of the nation's first publicly funded natural medicine clinics in its Kent, Washington, center. In conjunction with Bastyr University and the Statistics and Epidemiology Research Corporation, Community Health Centers plans to offer natural medicine treatment to low-income, immigrant, and refugee populations in the Seattle area.
Natural medicine involves restoring health through encouraging the elimination of toxins. Practitioners of naturopathy believe that health is maintained by avoiding unnatural or artificial products in the environment and diet. Poor lifestyle habits are often corrected through adopting new behaviors in terms of eating, exercising, attitude, and self-care.
Alternative therapies will be available to these populations in addition to conventional treatment already available at the center. The clinic has $750,000 in funding, approved by the Washington State Legislature, which is provided by a State Legalization and Immigration Assistance grant. The research corporation will conduct studies evaluating patient satisfaction, cost-effectiveness, and health outcomes, and these findings will be compared to results for conventional therapies for the following health conditions: migraine headaches, high blood pressure, chronic ear infections, and asthma. Bastyr, an accredited natural medicine school and an OAM-funded specialty research center investigating alternative therapies for HIV/AIDS, will manage the clinic.
OUR LEGACY
The medical revolution is at hand. And perhaps the most active rebels will be you and me, those of us looking for a better way to wellness. As we evaluate our own desires, examine our beliefs, we will uncover the healing powers stored within our bodies. Many—from all over the globe—will walk beside us on this journey. Even Western practitioners, who once thought that the Western way was the only way, will join us as we discover an elegant route to wellness—a route that integrates the natural, the spiritual, the personal, with the technological advances of our modern world. Through integrative medicine, we begin our journey together. This is the legacy we will leave for future generations.
"I had been feeling unhappy. I was offered a trial of Prozac by my medical doctor. I compared the cost of Prozac (100% out-of-pocket) and that of psychotherapy and acupuncture (receiving 40% and 75% reimbursement respectively) and though it's about half the cost to use Prozac, I decided I wanted human contact and an opportunity to be coached and educated into how to grasp my struggles in life better. Also, I quit my job... for one that is much less stressful. I feel less depressed and a whole lot smarter. I care about the people I work with, too."
—Male, 21-30 age group, survey respondent
WESTERN MEDICINE'S FIRSTS
1796 Edward Jenner first inoculates against smallpox.
1847 The American Medical Association is formed.
1892 The American Medicinal Plants is compiled. It is the first American-based herbal medicinal, containing information on the healing properties of 180 plants.
1928 The first antibiotic is discovered by Alexander Fleming.
1938 The first cardiac catheterization is performed in New York by George Peter Robb and Israel Steinberg.
1953 DNA's double-helix structure is discovered by Francis Crick and James Watson.
1955 There is a major public health effort to inoculate children with the polio vaccine discovered by Jonas Salk.
1957 Oral polio vaccine is formulated by Jonas Salk.
1957 Fiber optic endoscopy is pioneered by Basil Hirschowtiz at the University of Michigan.
1967 The first human heart transplant is carried out by Christiaan Barnard.
1972
