A combination of consumer demand, clinical outcomes and emerging literature supportive of a whole person integrative approach to medicine is leading to sustained growth in the industry. But the reality is that reimbursements from payers and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for conventional care—especially for oncologists—keep shrinking, and integrative services are still largely not reimbursable. The economy is still biting the middle class; and those with decent insurance policies, Cadillac models and Chevy’s alike, often hesitate to pay out-of-pocket for medical services, especially those requiring repeat visits for chronic conditions.
Two key things need to happen over the next few years in order for evidence-based integrative care to become a sustainable economic model for centers and practitioners: comparative effectiveness research and the employment of 21st century marketing and communications:
If proof of savings can be shown using comparative effectiveness research (CER) featuring “prescriptive” lifestyle programs, or even single interventions showing positive, affordable outcomes compared to today’s standard of care, then the government—the country’s largest payer—and insurance companies will slowly start getting behind these cost-saving options. Following are a few encouraging findings from 2010, as highlighted in John Weeks’ March 2011 Integrator Blog post, The Big Money in Integrative Health Care:
The National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy was created by the Council on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health, as part of the Affordable Care Act, with the unprecedented goal of shifting the nation from a focus on sickness and disease to one based on wellness and prevention. Imagine dietician consultations covered one day for cancer patients or even well patients—and not just for those with heart disease or type 2 diabetes! The hope is for a well-designed integrative medicine arm to be part of every viable CER trial funded through the Affordable Care Act. Until positive outcomes from studies such as those done at Penny George Institute and Duke can be duplicated within a CER setting, legislators on capital hill will simply not pay much attention. The integrative medicine proponents on the advisory council clearly have their work cut out for them.
A course of watchful waiting or hoping for payers, including CMS, to help relieve health consumers and begin reimbursing your center for the integrative services you provide is not a viable business model.
Action and behavior change is required now, to ensure that providers of evidence-based integrative care can enjoy the economic benefits that should come along with the satisfaction of helping patients with a true patient-centered approach to medicine. You need to get paid for providing your conventional and integrative services. Perhaps your practice has gone the direction of a concierge model and it’s working for you just fine. That’s wonderful, but most integrative practitioners don’t have this luxury—yet—and need to become savvy marketers and communicators.
Here are a few concepts:
While we wait for the payers to come around, now is the time for you to implement an actionable marketing and communications strategy to improve the economics of your integrative practice.
FON is a leading integrative health and medicine business development and strategy consulting firm. FON specializes in custom solutions for growing patient volume, developing programs, and increasing product sales. Our practical business models are driven by innovative marketing, clear messaging, and customer engagement via branded storytelling.
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The Rise of Integrative Health & Medicine
By Glenn Sabin and Taylor Walsh
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