Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net The other day, a patient told me he saw an orthopedist because his neck pain had been horrible. He had multiple problems that were improving, and as our patients already know, we have wide availability in both our offices, including Sunday mornings, and prioritized his work schedule instead of his treatment needs. He explained the doctor’s diagnosis was based on an X-ray and a quick evaluation. Meanwhile, he has already had a few surgeries on other things that happened before I became involved, which did little to help him stay out of pain while he was having more problems as he aged. This patient is relatively young. How much arthritis could he have had on that X-ray? Probably not much. I had said to the patient that if he was in pain, he could have texted or called me, and I would have responded quickly to help him. As always, I am reachable on my cell. Perhaps, he will do this from now on, as his pain was from the chronic problems he had developed from years of misinformation from the medical system and the procedures he endured based on medical recommendations. Part of my job is to keep patients healthy and out of harm’s way. This is what was traditionally done in primary care for years, but not now, since primary care has become a big system-oriented where the primary care job is to be a revolving door into a system of tests, medical specialists, costs, and procedures that often leave us worse off years later. I still believe a primary care approach to the musculoskeletal system is sorely needed to help patients avoid care based on symptoms rather than on the dysfunction behind them. Perhaps this is why so many patients improve long-term with chiropractic care. Do medical specialists do long-term follow-up on their patients? To a point, but not months or years later. On the other hand, many chiropractic patients continue to improve with periodic chiropractic management, without drugs, surgeries, or the joint damage that occurs from years of treating symptoms rather than the problems that resolve from that ignorance of how we function holistically. If you are in pain, do you want good care, a thorough exam, and great outcomes at a reasonable cost with low risk? Seeing a chiropractor can help you find what you are looking for, which is probably the biggest reason to think chiropractic first. Concierge service and at what cost? Many of us have read about concierge doctors who limit their medical practice to 300 to 400 patients at a cost of $3000 or more per year to join the practice. This started mostly with Geriatricians who have to spend more time and are often underpaid for what they do. Other types of primary care are moving to this model, which can be highly profitable from their standpoint, especially if they are solo practitioners. In the model, you pay a yearly fee, and they bill your insurance. A practice of 400 patients that pays yearly fees to join the practice is giving the practice 1.2 million dollars a year just to access the practice. This is great for doctors, but the medical model is limiting, especially when it comes to pain and mechanical dysfunction, areas where the medical model can be especially unhelpful. While I would agree that primary care reimbursement in private practice has not kept up with our medical specialists in reimbursement, this should be adjusted by the system itself, where time and care are more important than a conveyor belt style of practice, which we are all paying for in outsized healthcare premiums that leave many of us underinsured and undercared for. Your chiropractor offers a concierge service that will often accept your insurance, is often underpaid for the services they provide, and will not only call you back and answer your question but will also do their best to put you in their schedule to help you. Because they do not work in the medical system the same way, many of the medical services they do offer help reduce the need for the medical system’s costly interventions later on by improving how you function. The shortage of healthcare providers can be reduced by allowing chiropractors to work in that system, too. Their strength is in musculoskeletal medicine, which helps you stay healthier by reducing many of the problems that result in bad joints and chronic pain. Chiropractors work in many of the grey areas of healthcare and are, unfortunately, underutilized by the system. To make things worse, Insurance deductibles and copays have an adverse effect on our health, causing people to delay care, which increases costs. Some patients try to ration their care because of artificial limits on chiropractic benefits. This is absurd as I have explained to many patient that their insurance does not have to live your life, or your life’s experiences. Some damage is irreversible, yet your chiropractor is still affordable even without insurance. It’s your body and your temple, so how you care for it is a personal choice. Choose wisely in dental care, and you can maintain your teeth as you age. Choose wisely with chiropractic early on, and you will need fewer drugs and fewer medical procedures later on. Should the system use chiropractors more frequently and pay them more appropriately? Absolutely. It is time for universal healthcare, which, if done properly, would reduce the need for concierge medicine, which improves your access just like a private plane does, yet you still end up at the same destination, but with the perks you can afford. From our chiropractic point of view, our job as care providers is to supply the care you need and be available to you. Chiropractic is not a luxury but a necessity. Done right, it helps you avoid procedures, tests, and risks that are avoidable when our bodies work as they should. Do it wrong, and medical specialists will even resort to fear to drive you to make decisions that may not be in your best interest. In the USA, is there a shortage of healthcare providers or a shortage of great healthcare that spends the time to do things correctly, avoiding the shortcuts early on that harm us later in life? A while ago, there was a discussion regarding how Denmark has fewer childhood vaccines and a healthier population. One doctor in the NY Times explained that they have universal healthcare, and since they take better care of their population of 18 million, they require fewer vaccines. Imagine how healthcare would be in the USA, which is much larger by comparison, if we just took better care at lower costs here of our population. We are in desperate need of Universal healthcare in the USA. It can begin with expanding Medicare for everyone. Chiropractic is concierge. We just don’t charge a fortune for it. In pain? Think chiropractic first.