How well do you know your spine and what it requires?
Does your doctor? Does your insurer (ie,
Medicare)? Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka prides itself on understanding the
spine of each of our Sitka chiropractic patients. Your Sitka
chiropractor assesses your low back when there’s
low back pain, your neck when there’s neck pain, your neck when there’s arm pain, your low back when there’s
leg pain, your thoracic spine when there’s thoracic
(and even neck and low back) pain. Your chiropractor ”gets” your
spine. Unfortunately, sometimes your insurer doesn’t.
The chiropractic profession strives to provide
the research to the insurers to cover essential treatment for
your spine while your Sitka chiropractor strives
to communicate clearly with your insurer for your optimal
care and with you for your optimal clinical outcome: back pain relief, neck pain relief, arm pain relief, leg pain relief,
etc.
YOUR INSURER
Administrators’ data doesn’t tell the whole
story about back pain. In one study that compared
self-reported low back pain to data assembled by
health groups that track low back pain via billing codes
and the like found that these two groups
do not agree. Self-reported data regarding low back
pain (21.2%) was greater than administration’s data (10.2%).
Characteristics of low back pain patients based on data varied
in several areas – sex, health/behavior traits, and health care use
– leading to an undervalued prevalence of low back pain. (1)
Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka knows how prevalent back pain is and how it affects our back
pain patients like you.
YOUR BACK PAIN
In a study that expressly examined one influence on back pain - spinal stiffness - from the subjective
patient point of view and the objective testing angle revealed
that these two measures don’t correlate well either. At least in
this comparison, real input was from people: patients who
filled out questionnaires and doctors who filled out
objective tests. These findings led the researchers to note
that while these two sources do not correlate well, each is
valuable in the overall picture of the
patient’s condition and care. (2) Your Sitka chiropractor uses this evidence to take care of your spine.
YOUR CHIROPRACTOR
Your Sitka chiropractor is an evidence-based
chiropractor. Evidence guides the spine relief treatment plan at
Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka. A fascinating study of chiropractic
students found that as each year of school passed the students became
less vitalistic and more evidence-based. (3) After 7 or so years in school,
your chiropractor is ready to take care of Sitka
back pain and neck pain patients. The evidence of beneficial chiropractic
spine care keeps growing! Researchers write today that the use of non-pharmacological pain management may inhibit
unnecessary use of opioids. Chiropractic is one type of non-drug
pain management offering. In a study of 101,221 spine pain patients, 1.55 to 2.03 times more non-chiropractic
patients got an opioid prescription than chiropractic patients. (4)
Further, Medicare beneficiary patients who utilize chiropractic are found
to have better clinical outcomes (faster recovery, fewer back
surgeries a year later, less opioid-linked
disability, fewer traumatic falls and injuries, slower declines in activities
of daily living and disability over time) at less expense (fewer
medical doctors visits for low back pain, less opioid expense, less back-surgery
cost) with higher levels of satisfaction. (5) These are not
bad trade-offs for the Medicare cost system and for the Medicare patient.
CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
Listen to this PODCAST
by Dr. Lee Hazen and Cheri Hazen RN on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson describing how non-pharmacological relieving
treatment of back pain using the Cox® Technic System of Spinal
Pain Management and other non-drug approaches help.
Schedule a non-surgical Sitka
chiropractic care visit with Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka. Know that
Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka knows Sitka back pain, understands how it affects
you, and has a plan for its relief.