Insurance for holistic approaches to medicine

[gretapursley]

THIS POLICY IS NOT EASY TO IMPLEMENT! I left my practice as a nurse and professor because I know that most of what I teach is not based on evidence, because the majority of evidence about most chronic disease has been left out of all medical curriculum. What little we do teach about it leaves out 2000 years of acupuncture/Chinese herbs, and so many other thoroughly researched holistic ways to prevent disease. How can you use insurance to cover these methods without sending doctors and nurses back to college to relearn all the research that was left out of their curriculum?

The only way I see this policy working is for insurances that are only holistic oriented to compete with the western medical insurance policies so people can take their pick. You can’t possibly mix them all under one umbrella because then you allow a western oriented mindset to tell holistic practitioners what they can and cannot do. I can only see FDA and government taking away what we do behind the scenes to keep people healthy in that case, because they would want to regulate what they do not understand. As a holistic practitioner please do NOT allow our practice to be regulated by western medicine!!!

Insurance-driven policies in work places has ruined our physician and nurse work in western medicine already. I learned in college how to delegate and that a nurse has to be rigorous in how he/she follows up-I had to know this for my board exams and licensure. Then……insurance-driven hospital procedure ripped that all away from me as it asked me time and again to leave certain things for CNAs and only do other aspects of a nurse’s role. According to my license, I broke ethical boundaries in my hospital work all the time, just because the insurance demanded different things from the hospital than my license did. Do not put that onto holistic practices please!!!

[PattyS (Patricia Tatom)]

Insurance is outrageous. It may be better to get insurance out of medical care altogether. I will agree that there needs to be a way to make sure that the public can trust doctors, but if doctors have to pay high insurance, they pass the cost onto us and it’s just not working.

[Vioc (Violeta Neal)]

I wholeheartedly agree with these recommendations. I have seen numerous people completely reverse chronic conditions by weaning away from years (& even decades) on pharmaceutical drugs, through the use of
alternative protocols, therapies and nutraceuticals. Unfortunately many more were prevented from pursuing these changes because they couldn’t afford them, or weren’t covered by insurance plans… P.S. Medical schools should be mandated to spend substantial amount of time teaching nutrition.

[dmitch (Diane Mitchell)]

agree

[KaisenEldridge]

We also need more emphasis on physical therapy! Many times patients have to go though doctors and try medicines and procedures that may not help at all! Physical therapists are doctors of their field (DPT) and can treat many other ailments and illnesses than just musculoskeletal! Insurances, doctors, and pharma are the reason PTs don’t have direct access and cant order imaging. PT can help with so much more than we realize!

[MissMicah (Micah Linderer)]

Also combine DENTAL and VISION on health insurance instead of having separate plans. How are my eyes and teeth not part of my overall health?

[babs4 (Barbara Blackmon)]

Yes, let us decide who and what about our health and where are money is used. Most are into vitamins and supplements but health insurance does not cover. You go to a Natural Grocer and the cost of good for you foods are so expensive. This needs to change.

[Healthy2 (Deborah Phillips)]

This is a very important point!!! So how would we get help for the out of pocket expenses???

[DJH68 (Donna Hartmann)]

I agree, insurance companies should cover functional medicine rather than just conventional medicine.

[ChineseMedicineDoc (Michael Cregger)]

Two different kinds of insurance here- medical and malpractice.

[jennmdlc (Jennifer Rosado)]

and on the other end, my friend’s grandfather had diabetes a major part of his life. His neighbor from mexico put him on to some Root of something tea for him to drink daily which CURED the diabetes and restored so many things that diabetes had started to destroy!

i’m still trying to find out which tea this was but I’ve heard stories of people going to mexico and being healed naturally where in the US they only got worse and were stuck on pills piled on pills!

[KatFitz (Kathy FitzGerald)]

Coverage ~ Do you mean the amount you have to pay out of pocket? Or, are they flat out saying you are denied coverage of those services?

[KatFitz (Kathy FitzGerald)]

What do you suggest? How do we go about that?

[noto (Tony Noto)]

Consider voting for this policy which will help this one:

Our government must be agnostic/neutral regarding medical modalities

We need a major paradigm shift away from the false assumption that Western medicine is the best there is. This type of practice has been coined allopathic medicine since it is based on giving meds that appose or suppress symptoms. There is no evidence that suppressing symptoms leads to better health outcomes. In fact there is plenty of clinical evidence that it often leads to worse outcomes. Not to mention the associated iatrogenic diseases (caused by the medicines) that result. Governments sh…

[Daundre (Michael Scott)]

I absolutely agree with this, it’s also give holistic medicine the support and research it needs to become mainstream!

[Yarik18 (Yaroslav Prikhodko)]

I am a veteran and I’ve been trying to get very inexpensive (relatively) procedure. Stellate Ganglian Block or SGB. If I move to East coast I have better chances of getting treatment then if I stay where I am in PNW. Tricare east vs triacare west. Instead they insist to prescribe me medications that have failed with more medications that often times makes things even worse. What am I supposed to do but to bring this into light, with a hope that people in charge can start making changes.

[DRSE (eagans)]

That is called a Chiropractic Physician (Functional Medicine or Internal Medicine Chiropractic Physician) and Naturopathic Doctor. They are educated vigorously. They earn a 5 year didactic Doctorate degrees after a 4 yearundergraduate degree. They do learn Nutrition, supplementation and alterantive treatments. Please start using them instead of expecting MDs who are there for emergencies and chronic care to do what other Specialists are educated to do.

[DRSE (eagans)]

Before you hand over holistic care decision to the Insurance Company to destroy please consider the following:

Independent Review of Insurance Corporations denials

There should be a review of how Insurance Companies are denying claims. This should include how the decision was made and who made it. What was the education and qualification of the person or people who denied it? Did they have the same level of education as the Provider? That includes if the Provider is Alternative Care they cannot be reviewed by an MD who is not trained in Alternative Care. It must be equivalent in decision making. If it was how did the Provider come to the conclusion exa…

and

Stop Insurance Corps from coming back for enormous amounts of money after approving a claim

Insurance Corporations use a practice of approving claims for a number of patients then months later coming back and saying oops we don’t approve that claim give us the money back. These are very large sums of money such as $25,000 or $50.000. This puts an enormous financial harship on providers who own small clinics and even puts some out of business. If they approve a claim in the first place how is it suddenly not approved? It’s because they want to keep more money. It has nothing to do wi…

and

Doctors determine medical care not insurance companies

Doctors should determine treatment and care. Insurance companies should never determine medical care. Insurance companies currently determine type of care and deny care with out any training in medicine, all doctors, including alternative care, chiropractic, functional medicine doctors and nurse practitioners should determine appropriate medical treatment along with patients. that should include all natural forms of medicine, and treatment not just synthetic drugs and surgery. Patients are c…

[DebraJM78 (Debra J McDermitt)]

OLD Thoughts: Medical basics

As to the no deductibles/premiums and the items listed FREE it doesn’t mean that there couldn’t be some copayment for large costs or things. The question comes for “catastrophic” or emergency type situations.

[soulgardener (Anne)]

Let’s Insure More than Our Physical Bodies…

When I was in medical school, I began to hear patients’ souls explain why they were sick. They always had very good reasons. Over time, I realized that every symptom and every disease process is a soul communication, urging our human development. Unfortunately, we’ve been taught to view this body language as an affliction, instead of valid communication that alerts us to the specific changes we need to make to evolve.

To me, the soul is not a religious term, but a medical entity. Psychology means the study of the soul, and psychiatry means healing the soul. The soul is another name for the psychological body, while the physical body is its house and vehicle. Can’t we tell a lot about people by observing their homes and cars?

Unfortunately, we are a traumatized people who have learned to place greater value in the tangible physical body than the deeply sensitive, intangible psychological body. We look to the physical for causes, preventions, and cures, as we did during the Covid Crisis. We forget that we are physical, emotional, mental, and relational beings. When we have a problem in any of these areas, it may express itself through the aspect of self that gets the most attention and care, which for most people is the physical body.

This method of healing involves addressing each aspect of our humanity. We listen to the soul communicating through each symptom, illness, or injury and treat each condition emotionally, mentally, and relationally, as well as physically. With this comprehensive healing method, we aptly respond to each underlying request for growth. The results are not only safe and effective, but also gentle, economical, and developmental. Patients progress along their unique journeys of human soul development. The potential for the widespread implementation of this knowledge is a population of increasingly healthy and soulful human beings. Imagine!