By Brian Coughlan |
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Besides finding that massage was the most frequently used, the new Stanford study also found that 22 percent of respondents said their massage visit was covered by insurance and 69 percent said massage cured or relieved their symptoms considerably. Results of the survey were released during a conference held at Stanford University School of Medicine late last year. Hosted by SCRDP, the conference was sponsored by Health Net, a large California health plan, and American Specialty Health Plans, a leader in providing managed care products in chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage therapy. Another finding of the latest study was that the most CAM encounters involved therapies that are self-applied, including vitamin therapy, meditation, herbal medicine, and relaxation techniques. This indicates that people normally do not seek out a practitioner for help using these options. Several conference speakers reacted with concerns about the hazards of taking vitamins and herbs for medical conditions without the guidance of a practitioner. Massage scored in the middle on a question designed to find out whether CAM therapies are received in addition to allopathic medicine (making them complementary) or in place of conventional medicine (making them alternative). The self-applied therapies scored a bit more complementary, while the other provider-based therapies-----chiropractic and acupuncture-----appeared to be used slightly more as an alternative to conventional care. This may suggest that massage therapy is equally popular with people both as a complement to allopathic care and as an alternative to allopathic care. On the money question, "How much did you pay for CAM services last year?" the average paid, per person, out of pocket, was acupuncture $270, chiropractic $157, and massage $137. The 1998 survey data were presented by Wes Alles, Ph.D., senior research scientist at SCRDP and director of both the Stanford Health Improvement Program and the Stanford Health Promotion Resource Center. Of the data collected in August 1998, Alles told MTJ, these were the earliest findings, with more analyses to come. Alles was intrigued to find that, "Almost as many people said they got their chiropractic care from an M.D. as from a chiropractor." He takes this error as an indication that much consumer education needs to be done if people don't know the difference between seeing a doctor of chiropractic and a doctor of medicine. |
Other Research Results This sold-out CAM conference hosted by Stanford was attended by healthcare students, practitioners, researchers, insurance executives, consultants, suppliers, and hospital and clinic administrators. It also served as an occasion to showcase Stanford's new complementary medicine clinic, which includes three massage therapists who also work in Stanford Hospital's inpatient massage-therapy program. The two other principal sections of the conference addressed clinical research supporting the safety and efficacy of acupuncture, chiropractic, herbal medicine, and mind-body medicine; and, insurance reimbursement for CAM therapies. The last topic will be the main focus of a conference to be jointly sponsored by Harvard and Stanford Universities at San Francisco in October. It is designed to provide information to managers at health plans, hospitals and clinics, and employee benefits offices. The timing is good, since massage therapists around the country have generally adopted a circumspect, show-me position on the evolutionary changes in insurance reimbursement of massage. [MTJ, Fall 1998]
OAM Activities Other highlights of the 1998 Stanford conference were updates on activities at the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) by Deputy Director Geoffrey Cheung, Ph.D., and a closing panel discussion that drew pointed questions and statements about managed care. Cheung spoke in place of OAM Director Wayne Jonas, M.D., who is near the end of his 3-year term at OAM. Cheung told a humorous anecdote to illustrate the public's current fascination with herbal remedies. He said he had gone into Chinatown looking for a drug store to get antihistamines for a runny nose. When told his problem, the pharmacist said, Try St. John’s Wort. It’s hot. The government is interested. Commented Cheung, who is aware that OAM has funded a clinical trial to test its use for depression, said, "the herb of the month is becoming the herb du jour." The possibility of eventually having an OAM research center devoted to massage therapy is not too wild a dream. Cheung said that a next step, after having established centers devoted to particular disease conditions, such as asthma or pain, would be to have centers devoted to specific modalities. In fact, a grant was awarded in 1998 to a group of chiropractic |
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