The Dilemma of Spine Patients with Cardiac Conditions- by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Most primary care physicians are utilizing one of three different "treatment" options for patients with spine complaints.  They are treating in-house (aka- giving medication), referring to physical therapy, or referring to an orthopedist.  The catch is that millions of Americans are currently taking medications for various cardiac conditions.  

Did you know that patients who are taking cardiac medications are unable to take NSAID's?  

While even the patients without contraindications generally should not be prescribed NSAID's (according to many guidelines) , the patients who are unable to take NSAID's most certainly should be a target of our outreach efforts.  By taking care of these patients we provide value to the primary care office (they are unable to treat these patients themselves) while also offering a option (chiropractic care) which is recommended by numerous back pain guidelines and publications.  

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-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the leading DC/MD marketing and outreach group in the world.  Our service is dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is efficient, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together.

Doctors Pay Made Public- by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Today is a landmark day as physician pay totals from CMS (Medicare) have been made public.  This was bitterly opposed by the American Medical Association, however, their lobbying dollars couldn't stop the 'freedom' of information.  

At nearly 1 million rows of Excel content, the list is quite challenging to sort through.  It contains the payment information for services rendered in 2012.  Additionally, it touches on the services billed, number of Medicare patents, physician name, physician address, NPI, and submitted charges.  Arguably, this is actually valuable information for the public to have.  They will now be able to identify those physicians who are running medical "mills"; where services are standardized and done in overwhelming volume.  

Some early data miners have found that over 4,000 physicians received payment of over $1 million dollars in 2012 from Medicare.  Also, a Florida Ophthalmologist received $21 million dollars for services rendered in 2012.  

In my opinion, transparency regarding payment of health care services is a good thing.  Chiropractic care is cost-effective, safe, and effective.  When new organizations start "outing" physicians who are doing invasive work for extreme prices, this will inevitably start to push the pendulum even further towards diagnosis and outcome based reimbursement models.  

If you or your patients have interest, the list is available here- https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/Physician-and-Other-Supplier.html

 

-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the leading DC/MD marketing and outreach group in the world.  Our service is dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is efficient, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together.

SPINE JOURNAL regarding chiropractic, "a statistically and clinically significant benefit..."

In 2013, SPINE Journal produced the research article, "Adding Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy to Standard Medical Care for Patients with Acute Low Back Pain: The Results of a Pragmatic Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Study."  

In it, the authors came to the following conclusions-

“The results of this trial suggest that Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy in conjunction with standard medial care offer a significant advantage for decreasing pain and improving physical functioning when compared to standard care alone, for men and women between the ages of 18-35 with acute low back pain.”

“There was a statistically and clinically significant benefit to those patients receiving chiropractic manipulative treatment...”

“The majority of systematic reviews find that chiropractic manipulative therapy appears to reduce pain and disability at least moderately for many low back pain patients.”

“73% of participants in the SMC plus CMT group rated their global improvement as pain completely gone, much better, or moderately better, compared with 17% in the SMC group.” 

This is further proof that working together and promoting multidisciplinary care will yield superior outcomes for our patients.  

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JOIN US BY THE END OF THE MONTH AND RECEIVE ZIP CODE EXCLUSIVITY AND A 30 MINUTE IMPLEMENTATION CALL

-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the leading DC/MD marketing and outreach group in the world.  Our service is dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is efficient, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together.

Chiropractic Care Supported by the American Pain Society and American College of Physicians - by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

A variety of clinical guidelines support and encourage the use of chiropractic care due to its safety and efficacy.  In 2007, the Annals of Internal Medicine released a series of clinical guidelines.  The clinical guidelines for the treatment of low back pain were supported by the American Pain Society and the American College of Physicians.  

These guidelines reveal some interesting data.  They report 65% of primary care physicians recommend massage, 55% recommended ultrasound, and 22% recommended (of performed) spinal manipulation.  They also found that only 2 treatment options show strong efficacy for the management/treatment of acute (<4 weeks duration) low back pain.  These treatment options were spinal manipulation and heat.  For sub-acute and chronic low back pain the researchers still found spinal manipulation to be a valuable treatment option.

When we look at this study we can draw a few conclusions.  First, only a small minority (22%) of physicians are recommending spinal manipulation to their patients.  Second, spinal manipulation is a recommended treatment option.  

The discrepancy in the recommendations from the clinical guidelines and the recommendations by the physicians is no surprise.  Other studies have shown that primary care physicians recommendations for low back pain are "high discordant" with current research.  Without a profession wide marketing and outreach campaign for the promotion of this research, the task falls to us, as individual providers to build referral relationships. 

-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the leading DC/MD marketing and outreach group in the world.  Our service is dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is efficient, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together.

Do I Need an MRI? by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Many primary care doctors order MRI's immediately for patients with spine complaints.  Did you know that research suggests the patients should be evaluated by a non-surgical spine physician first?  For many local primary care doctors, we are that choice! 

    -The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the fastest growing chiropractic outreach group in the profession.  The service, founded and run by Dr. Jeff Langmaid, is dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is proven, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together

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