A rather grumpy old man was irritated by the number of neighborhood kids playing in his yard.  After numerous unsuccessful attempts to get them to stop, he decided that he needed a better plan.  He sat down and came up with a new strategy.

The very next day when the children were playing in his yard he came outside.  Instead of yelling at the children or telling them to leave, he told them to come over to him.  He said," You kids do such a good job at playing in my yard each day, I want to reward you.  For each day you play in my yard I will pay you 10 cents."

Needless to say the kids were ecstatic.  Now they could play and also get paid!  This was great!  So the next day the children played very hard.  They did the same the next day and the day after that.  After the 4th day of being paid for playing, the old man called them over to him again.  He said to the children,"  You kids are doing such a good job! I'm going to pay you 25 cents a day to play in my yard!"  The kids were delighted.  This was awesome!

The next day the kids played as hard and as "good" as they possibly could.  They did this the next day and the day after that. On the fourth day the old man again called all the children over to him.  Each of them was anticipating another pay raise.  He explained to each of the children that something was lacking.  He told them that their play wasn't as good as it once was.  He told them he thought he really wasn't getting his money's worth and that he really felt their play was only worth about 10 cents a day.  The children were very disappointed.

The next day they played but not nearly as vigorously as they had in the past.  They seemed somewhat disenchanted with the play they had once enjoyed.  This happened for the next day and the day after that.  Then on the 4th day the old man again came outside and called the children to him.  He told them that he felt their play effort really didn't warrant him paying them 10 cents and now he really could only afford 5 cents.  The kids were really looking sad and disappointed now.  One or two of them looked like they could cry.  They left his yard in a slow,mopey type of procession.

The next day only about half the children showed up to play.  The day after that only a couple showed up and played for only a few hours and then left.  The fourth day no children showed up to play.  The grumpy old man's plan was a success.  He had successfully generated disinterest by paying for something and then withdrawing the benefit incrementally. 

This process is very similar to how Large Insurance Companies have attempted to subvert Chiropractic.  At first they didn't pay for Chiropractic, then they did, and then over the period of several years they have been incrementally disabling people's Chiropractic Benefits.

Over the years, each Health Insurance Company has developed it's own protocols and procedures to make it tougher to gain access to Chiropractic Benefits.  They've gradually tried to wean patients from Chiropractic by pretending that the process of Chiropractic Coverage is overly difficult, requires alot of paperwork, and generally isn't worth all the effort.  Very similar to the old man in the neighborhood, they are trying to keep people from accessing their Chiropractic Benefits by slowly withdrawing benefits.  Endless paperwork, overly restrictive benefit packages, stalling correspondence, high co-pays, separate deductibles for Chiropractic, these are all tactics used.  But no one benefits from this, including the Health Insurance Companies.

While it initially denying Chiropractic Claims may look effective at cutting costs, it isn't.  Cutting Chiropractic Benefits forces people to access more expensive and less effective forms of care within the Conventional Healthcare System.  For instance, someone that might have needed $400 worth of Chiropractic Care to resolve a low back condition, might be forced by his insurance to go to his MD which promptly orders a $1200 MRI, orders Physical Therapy at $150 a visit, an orthopedic consult at $300, and the cost of medication, all of which only covers up the problem.  How cost-effective is that? 

Chiropractic has a long track record of reducing healthcare costs to patients while maintaining a high patient satisfaction rates.  For instance the study released a few months ago that showed that when Doctors of Chiropractic were used as primary care physicians resulted in 60 percent fewer hospitalizations, 62 fewer outpatient surgical cases, and 80 less pharmaceutical costs while maintaining patient satisfaction rates in the 90th percentile.  If you still haven't had your fill of data check out this! 

My Message to All Health Insurance Company Administrators:
The numbers don't lie, Chiropractic saves you loads of money.  Instead of trying to dissuade your customers from accessing Chiropractic Benefits you should be encouraging them!  If you let Chiropractors do the work they are trained to do, you will profit at the reduced cost of patients not using more costly and less-effective interventions that involve Specialists, MRI's, Surgery, and Physical Therapy.

Just my two cents.