Of the more than $35 billion dollars spent on ambulatory, nonphysician (non-MD) services in 1987, chiropractic accounted for almost 10 percent. But for that money, chiropractors provided over 17 percent of the total patient contacts:
Nursing - 16.6%
Lab - 20.8%
Physical Therapy - 13.3%
Speech Therapy - .9%
Mental Health - 9.6%
Optometry - 1.2%
Chiropractic - 9.8%
Podiatry - 2.5%
Other - 25.3%
Patient Contacts:
Nursing - 17.3%
Lab - 6.6%
Physical Therapy - 7.4%
Speech Therapy - 1.2%
Mental Health - 9.8%
Optometry - 1.1%
Chiropractic - 17.6%
Podiatry - 2.6%
Other - 36.4%
How is it that physical therapy accounted for over 13 percent of the $35 billion, while only providing about 7 percent of the services, while chiropractors accounted for less than 10 percent of those dollars and providing over 17% of the services?
----------------- SOURCE: Nichols, L. Nonphysician health care providers: use of ambulatory services, expenditures, and sources of payment (AHCPR Pub. No. 96-0013). National Medical Expenditure Survey Research Findings 27. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD: Public Health Service, Jan. 1996.
When I graduated from chiropractic college in 1981 and started practice, I heard it all, and very little was positive. “You are a quack; you do not know what a subluxation is; you couldn’t get into a real health care program, so you chose the one that is slightly above a mail-order degree; you have no proof that chiropractic works; Are you really licensed?”, and so much more.
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A central challenge in creating our identity is that chiropractic is a method of care, not a technique or procedure. This is an important concept for us to promote. Our patients are treated with lifestyle modification, exercise, nutritional supplements, diet and a whole-body approach to accelerate the natural healing process. We are not simply CMT providers.
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