Alternative Medicine & Health Insurance

This morning I received an emailed update from NCCAM (National Center on Complementary & Alternative Medicine, a division of the National Institute of Health). The update included an announcement about a Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public that is being held in February by the Institute of Medicine. The meeting will discuss integrative medicine and its roll in patient-centered care and its role in patient's wellness and healing.

Many people are excited that NCCAM is there to do research on alternative and complementary medicine. Even more people want insurance companies to start covering massage, acupuncture, reflexology and other forms of CAM.

I have mixed feelings about it, mostly hesitant. Is that really a good thing?

As a healer, what I've noticed is that my clients who pay for their own alternative healthcare and take an active, responsible role in their healing, do better than the clients who refuse to get a treatment because their insurance company won't pay for it.

My other question is, "Do we really want the government and insurance companies involved in alternative and complementary medicine?" Sure, CAM providers would like to be acknowledged and be elevated out of the witchcraft, charlatan status but do we really want to jump through all the hoops that will be created by government and insurance company regulations?

The upside to all this is that government/insurance company involvement will set standards of education, training and care for CAM providers. The downside is that government/insurance company involvement will set standards of education, training and care for CAM providers.

One of the common characteristics of an effective healing session with a CAM provider is presence, connection and the flow of energy between the provider and the patient. How can you measure that? Who gets to decide the standards? How will healing energy be quantified?