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.
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.
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For more information on The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment, call (847) 230-9107 or visit BlockMD.com.
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