FON: The Business of Integrative Health & Medicine
Tagged as: ACA
It is incumbent upon clinical directors of integrative medicine programs to initiate dialogue and present the full value and possibilities of their program and human talent, to leaders within their institutions.
The Rise of Integrative Health and Medicine—The Milestones: 1963 – Present, a free 92-page e-book, presented by FON and XYMOGEN, highlights over 50 years of our industry’s collective history.
[This article originally appeared on the Altarum Institute Health Policy Forum blog, and is used with permission.] The advances made across the archipelago of integrative health and medicine disciplines in 2015 continue to be significant. If not yet a “movement,” the practices continue their inexorable flow into the established precincts of medicine, wellness, and prevention….
If your practice accepts third-party payer reimbursements, consider group clinic visits as a unique opportunity to cost-effectively deliver important services with reasonable compensation.
Prevention remains the only magic bullet ‘cure’ for most malignancies and chronic disease. It’s where we’re headed. The conundrum for providers lies in delivering the most effective services with sufficient profit margin.
Special report by Glenn Sabin and Taylor Walsh examines the confluence of factors affecting primary care medicine—including volume-driven traditional care, concierge models, shrinking reimbursements and ACA’s non-discrimination clause—and the opportunity for integrative healthcare.
So here we are. There’s roughly just shy of $10 billion dollars left in the Prevention and Public Health Fund, and according to top health economists, some of these so-called preventive services save lives and treasure, and others not so much. Now is the time to redefine what we call preventive medicine by combining the useful screenings and educational interventions that are proven to effectively save lives and money, and incorporate the basic tenets of integrative health and lifestyle medicine to promote health.
Section 2706 of the Affordable Care Act prevents health insurance plans from capriciously excluding a range of integrative health practitioners from coverage, based solely on licensure. While HHS Secretary Sibelius moves forward to ensure its implementation, the AMA contemplates what actions they may take to upend this landmark non-discrimination language.
The majority of hospital systems and cancer centers in major U.S. markets now offer an integrative medicine program of some shape or form.