Keith Block M.D.
With all the time, effort,
heated debates, and battles that have taken place to date on health care, the
discussion has been limited to reforming health care economics but has not been
focused on reforming health care itself.
As the effort to revise the
US health care system unfolds, it is imperative that we evaluate and implement
integrative strategies that will yield genuine and substantial cost savings
while having a favorable impact on patient care.
Integrative treatments have
the potential to reduce health care costs in a remarkable number of ways—from
providing effective approaches for prevention to relieving treatment
consequences. For instance, integrative lifestyle counseling may reduce the need
for certain prescriptive medications, shrinking not only the initial costs for
these drugs but ultimately the number of adverse drug reactions.
With hospitalizations for
adverse reactions to prescription medications running to 1.6 million annually
and deaths amounting to more than 100,000 per year, such reactions are
definitely contributing to runaway health care costs. So too is the lack of
educating and training Americans in new health care behaviors.
Over the past few decades,
we Americans have become a sick society. Obesity, diabetes, and cancer continue
to escalate with almost no success at prevention and only limited success with
treatment. When it comes to cancer, the publicized survival breakthroughs are
measured in a few weeks to a few months.
Regarding cancer, several
studies of integrative therapies provide enough data to estimate potential
savings. For example, Montgomery et al published research assessing the
benefits of a single hypnosis session conducted with breast cancer patients
just prior to breast biopsies. A cost-effectiveness analysis was part of the
randomized trial of this 15-minute intervention. The cost savings attributable
to the hypnosis procedure was $773, mostly from reduced medications and time
spent in surgery.
The Montgomery team also
remarked on other economic benefits, pointing to societal cost savings, such as
fewer missed work days and reductions in post surgery-related medical bills.
Although this is obviously an estimate based on available data, it is
astonishing to see the scale of the savings that could potentially be accrued
from this one 15-minute integrative intervention.
Dimeo et al in a 1996
publication studied the effect of having adult BMT patients exercise on
recumbent bicycles during their hospitalization. Among other positive effects
found in this randomized study, the authors noted that the exercise
intervention shortened hospital stays by 1.6 days. A regular hospital room costs $1122 per day
on average. At a reduction of 1.6 days per patient, this amounts to a hospital
room savings alone of $1795.20 per patient, or $57,954,442 for all the BMT
patients in a year.
Of course, not all
integrative interventions will be cost-effective even when they are
therapeutically beneficial. But it is my strong conviction, reinforced by
considerable data, that a systematic integrative program could provide
substantial help in shrinking the $1.3 trillion per year spent on preventable
diseases in the United States and an equally important reduction in cost and clinical
burden for those combating existing illness. These interventions—combined with
mainstream care—can also diminish adverse side effects, reduce
treatment-related complications, and improve quality of life and, in fact, can
be more humane and health promoting than an exclusive reliance on conventional
treatments.
Read Dr. Block's full article:
For
more information on The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment, call
(847) 230-9107 or visit BlockMD.com.