In many communities acupuncture is becoming a first line treatment for pain. Especially with today’s epidemic of opioid addiction, acupuncture offers a real alternative for pain relief. Acupuncture has also been shown to reduce costs, improve outcomes and increases patient satisfaction with their overall healthcare experience.

Even from a public health viewpoint, acupuncture should be a major component to our healthcare system.  Recent studies have shown that acupuncture lowers patient expenditures, lowers overall patient “out of pocket” spending, decreases the need for higher cost procedures and saves insurance companies money.

So not only has acupuncture been clinically proven to effectively reduce pain in the majority of cases, but it also saves patients, providers and payers money. For example, individuals with back pain cost the healthcare system 60% more (overall) than patients without back pain. This is largely due to expensive and largely ineffectual diagnostics and surgical procedures. Acupuncture has been shown in many studies to reduce the need for these more costly procedures.

One recent study showed that lack of complimentary services, such as acupuncture, cost insurance companies $355 per enrollee per year. If we were to conduct a “thought experiment’ and multiply that by every patient in America, we find that making acupuncture a routine part of the healthcare system would save $115 billion dollars per year.

So if you or anyone you love is dealing with unresolved chronic pain, suggest acupuncture. It is painless, it is effective and it will save them some serious money.