Senators want coverage of alternative health

[Guest guest]

WASHINGTON - Naturopathic doctors, herbal healers, mind-body specialists, and

acupuncturists often have been scorned by the US medical establishment, but

growing numbers of Americans are seeking such care, and now an influential group

of US senators believes the time has come to embrace an array of alternative

therapies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discuss

 

COMMENTS (47)

 

 

Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who is a longtime supporter of

nontraditional medicine, is at the forefront of the effort to win insurance

coverage for such providers as part of national healthcare legislation.

 

 

“It’s time to end the discrimination against alternative healthcare

practices,’’ Harkin said at a congressional hearing.

 

 

Harkin is the cosponsor of an amendment that says healthcare plans will not be

allowed to “discriminate’’ against any healthcare provider who has a

license issued by a state, an amendment Senate aides said was designed to

provide coverage for alternative medicine.

 

 Backers of the amendment say it could save tens of billions of dollars in the

long run by providing less expensive and better alternatives to drugs and

surgery in a variety of cases. The amendment was adopted by a Senate committee

writing health legislation, but details are still being negotiated.

 

 

With hundreds of disciplines falling under the general category of alternative

medicine, and with a variety of sometimes-conflicting studies about their

effectiveness, there is much disagreement about the value of including such

providers in a national health insurance program.

 

 

State by state, there is a wide disparity of coverage of alternative medicine.

For example, Massachusetts licenses acupuncturists, and many health insurance

plans cover the service, but most do so only on a limited basis, by restricting

the number of visits or the dollar amount of coverage.

 

 

Forty-four states license acupuncturists. Fifteen states, not including

Massachusetts, license naturopathic physicians, who use natural remedies in

their treatment.

 

Many practioners of alternative medicine say mainstream caregivers don’t want

the competition.

 

 

But the American Medical Association says there is little evidence to confirm

the safety or efficacy of most alternative practices. “Much of the information

currently known about these therapies makes it clear that many have not been

shown to be efficacious,’’ the association said in a policy statement. The

association denies that it is trying to stifle competition and says it is only

trying to ensure that medicine is based on science.

 

 

Dr. Harriet Hall, a retired Air Force flight surgeon who examines medical claims

for Skeptic magazine, said she worries that ill-informed members of Congress

will elevate practitioners of alternative medicine to the same level as medical

doctors.

 

 

“If it were shown to be truly effective, it would be part of regular

medicine,’’ she said.

 

Nonetheless, the federal government has become increasingly involved in the

field, funding the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at

the National Institutes of Health, and states are increasingly being lobbied by

providers to receive formal approval for the field.

 

 

 

Massachusetts insurance companies recognize the growing consumer demand for

alternative therapies, said Dr. Marylou Buyse, president of the Massachusetts

Association of Health Plans, which represents groups providing services to 2.4

million people. She said coverage varies from one plan to another, but many

plans provide for a limited number of services such as chiropractic,

acupuncture, and massage therapy. She said costs would become prohibitive if

Congress mandated that an unlimited number of visits be covered.

 

 

Certain kinds of alternative medicine are considered mainstream in sectors of

the Massachusetts medical field, where they are increasingly called

“integrative’’ to emphasize that they are done in concert with traditional

medicine, not as an alternative. At the Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies

at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, traditional treatment is complemented by

acupuncture and massage therapy as well as counseling on mind-body techniques to

reduce stress. For example, acupuncture has proved beneficial to reduce nausea

from chemotherapy, according to the center’s co-clinical director, Dr. David

Rosenthal.

 

 

“We have a tendency to treat drug symptoms with another drug. We are looking

at trying to find nonpharmalogical approaches,’’ Rosenthal said.

 

 

The two main sponsors of the Senate amendment were Harkin and Senator Barbara

Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat. Republicans, including the ranking member on the

Senate health committee, Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming, also backed the

amendment. The Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions agreed

to the measure, but it will be left to the Senate Finance Committee, which is

working on companion legislation, to write crucial language regarding potential

reimbursement, Senate aides said. The matter will then be debated on the Senate

floor, and a similar amendment is expected to be offered in the House.

 

 

Whatever the fate of the amendment, merely the fact that it is pushed by a

number of senators has been greeted as a breakthrough by supporters of

alternative medicine.

 

“I was shocked and elated that it was even on the table,’’ said Shiva

Barton of Winchester, one of 50 naturopathic doctors who practice in

Massachusetts. Barton is leading an effort to have Massachusetts grant licenses

to naturopaths, which in turn might enable them to be covered in the national

plan.

 

 

Barton said that he mostly sees patients who have not been satisfied with the

results of traditional medicine.

 

 

“We are not opposed to conventional medicine, but it has its limits,’’

Barton said. He talks with patients about lifestyle changes, stress reduction

techniques, vitamins, minerals, herbal agents, acupuncture, and homeopathic

remedies. He said that naturopaths and other practitioners of alternative

medicine are discriminated against by a system that is dominated by

well-financed lobbies for medical doctors who don’t want competition.

 

 

Acupuncturists are also hoping for relief. Harvey Kaltsas, president emeritus of

the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, said the country

could save billions of dollars by shifting care for a number of conditions away

from pharmaceutical treatment and toward acupuncture. Kaltsas said the number of

licensed practitioners has grown to 20,000 from just 300 in 1971, indicating

that many people are sold on the practice’s effectiveness.

 

 

Proponents of alternative medicine say they cannot match the lobbying power of

conventional-medicine groups, but they have been making inroads. Dr. Mark Hyman,

a physician based in Lenox who has authored several books on what he calls

“ultrawellness’’ said he has met with a number of senators, as well as

administration officials, about the need to provide for alternative therapies in

the healthcare legislation. He said he has received a sympathetic response to

his argument that the use of complementary therapies can save money.

 

 

Proponents of mind-body wellness and related stress-reduction techniques also

want to be included as care providers in the legislation.

 

 

Dr. Herbert Benson, the Boston-based author of the popular book The Relaxation

Response, said in an interview that Congress should revise the healthcare

legislation to incorporate his stress-reduction techniques. Educating the public

about the techniques, and hiring more trainers to implement them, would save

billions of dollars, said Benson, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry

Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

 

 

He emphasized that he supports using drugs and surgery when necessary, but he

said it is time to adopt national policies that focus on the need for stress

reduction.

 

Michael Kranish can be reached at kranish.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _

 

To see this recommendation, below or cut and paste it

into a Web browser:

 

http://www.boston. com/news/ nation/washingto n/articles/ 2009/07/24/ senators_

seek_coverage_ for_alternative_ therapies? s_campaign= 8315

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" Lose your mind so you can come to your senses.You cannot do all the good the

world needs,thus the world needs all the good you can do. "

 

Dr.Twyla Hoodah, D.O.M., A.P. 

SpiritcareAcupuncture.org