Chiropractic Care Can Provide Welcome Relief to Injured Workers
If you think workers' compensation issues are unlikely to affect you because your job is not physically demanding, think again. According to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), repetitive strain injuries are the most common and costly of work-related injuries and can affect people whose work habits run the gamut in physical demands. They cost more than $20 billion per year in workers’ compensation and affect hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Any repetitive motions such as typing or using an adding machine as well as more physically demanding motions like winding a wrench can put you at risk for repetitive strain injuries. One of the more commonly known strain injuries is carpal tunnel syndrome. Sitting for hours on end can put you at risk for lower back pain and joint problems.
Sitting at a desk tightens the hip flexors, the muscles that pull your legs towards your body. Tight hip flexors can actually contribute to back pain, since tight hips tilt the pelvis forward, compressing the back. And let’s not forget stress, which can contribute to a wide range of physical challenges, with back pain near the top of the list.
Many of these work-related risks can be prevented or lessened by things you can do on your own. Paying attention to how your body is positioned while you’re doing your job, exercise and getting regular massage can reduce strain. Yoga and Pilates, in particular, are great methods for keeping your abdominal, back and leg muscles strong to ward off many of these risks. Simply taking regular breaks to stretch and walk around are some of the best ways to avoid chronic pain challenges. Ergonomic chairs are a must for office workers but must be complemented with proper posture and “get-up-and-stretch” breaks to be truly effective.
If you do find yourself in a situation where you’re experiencing pain with injuries that compromise your ability to work, you may qualify for care under your company’s workers’ compensations policy. By law, all companies are required to carry insurance that provides reasonable and necessary medical care for on-the-job injuries. What many people don’t realize (and their employer may not tell them) is that chiropractors and chiropractic care are covered by your workers' compensation insurance. In Oregon you can go to a chiropractor for 60 days or 18 visits without a M.D.’s prescription, (although there are some stipulations depending on how much other physical medicine you may have received for your injuries already, including physical therapy.) After the 60-day period, it may be possible to be referred for more chiropractic care by the Primary Provider on your work comp claim.
In the interest of protecting your long-term health, be proactive. Speak to someone from your human resources department about both your healthcare and workers' compensation policies and what type of chiropractic care coverage you are entitled to in general and in the case of an on-the-job injury. Don’t wait until the unthinkable happens to protect yourself with the information you’ll need to make prudent choices.
Ongoing chiropractic care can make financial sense for your employer, too. Over the course of a two-year period from 1994 to 1995, two companies in the UK with 750 employees referred workers complaining of neck/arm or back/leg pain for chiropractic treatment and subsidized the cost of care and were rewarded with high self-rated improvement and patient satisfaction and an 18% net saving of costs in the first year and 40% in the second year.
In fact, if you’re allowed to choose your chiropractor or an MD that is focused on CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) as you primary care provider (PCP) in your healthcare policy, you (and your employer) may be better served. Over a seven-year period, a study concluded that out of 600,000 members enrolled in a Blue Cross/Blue Shield HMO in Chicago that includes the usual independent provider associations (IPAs) or networks, where medical doctors are the PCPs and another IPA in which chiropractors and CAM-focused MDs are the PCPs, the CAM-oriented IPA reported consistently higher patient satisfaction rates as well as significant reductions in hospital admissions and stays, outpatient procedures, and pharmaceutical costs.
If you have a work-related back injury that doesn’t require surgery, chiropractic care should get you back to work sooner. In the late 1980s, a State of Florida study revealed that individuals with on-the-job back-related injuries who received chiropractic care had a shorter period missed work, significantly lower treatment costs, and a much lower hospitalization rate than those who received standard medical care for similar diagnoses. In the 1970s, Richard Wolf, M.D. followed 500 people with work-related injuries sent to chiropractors and 500 sent to medical doctors and found that those who received chiropractic care returned to work an average of 16.4 days sooner.
When a meat-processing plant in Manitoba, Canada wanted to reduce the number of repetitive strain and back injuries among its workforce, they invited a chiropractor to provide in-house services involving on-site services two days per week, focused on early detection, treatment, prevention and management of musculoskeletal injuries. Over a period of two years -- despite the fact that the number of reported injuries increased -- the number of lost days due to injury were nearly cut in half, workers’ compensation costs per claim went down from $1174 to $481, and patient satisfaction rates were high. Overall, the plant saved over $900,000 in the first 21 months of implementing this program.