Advancing Healthcare Through Health Policy Papers.
The Center for Healthcare Innovation and Policy (CHIP) produces health policy papers on issues that matter most to practitioners trained at NWHSU and their patients. We use our expertise to provide clear information to policymakers, practitioners, and healthcare leaders.
Access to complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH) services—including chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage therapy—within health systems remains limited or unavailable in most parts of the country, despite clear guidelines, requirements, and growing patient interest. This paper outlines the advantages and barriers to incorporating CIH into health systems; highlights regional success stories; and lays out clear recommendations for integrating CIH to improve care and reduce cost.
Medicare and Medicaid coverage does not reflect the current guidelines for treatment of pain, especially when it comes to coverage of chiropractic and acupuncture. This paper explores current limitations in Medicare and Medicaid coverage, and how expanding these services can result in greater care access, improved outcomes and cost savings on a national and state level.
At NWHSU, we believe the future of healthcare is integrative and person-centered. This paper defines and argues for an aspirational vision of integrative care: a sustainable, highly collaborative model that creates greater health across all populations. Through an exploration of the contrast between how healthcare is currently provided and what is possible with an integrative care paradigm, it introduces concepts that leaders can use to co-create systems that move towards greater health creation.
In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant down-stream impact on chronic pain sufferers, as well as social isolation and emotional distress that amplified pain. Meanwhile, the opioid crisis worsened, with drug overdose deaths increasing by 30% in 2020. This brief advocates for better support of pain patients through safe, effective, non-addictive pain treatment options.
Salutogenesis is an approach to health creation that encompasses a wide range of factors to facilitate health and wellbeing. This paper explores what a health system that prioritizes not just disease-management, but health creation could mean for the state of health and wellbeing in the United States.
A complex legacy of racism in the United States continues to create health inequities among people of color. This report explores the intersection of race and integrative care and presents concrete action for the complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH community) to take to confront racism and better serve communities of color going forward.
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to re-evaluate our collective preparedness for future public health emergencies. This paper outlines the ways in which CIH providers can be activated in times of healthcare crisis, and contribute to a more dynamic, wholistic-oriented cross-sector workforce.
In the United States, healthcare spending is approximately 18% of GDP – almost twice that of other high-income countries, however we experience worse health outcomes. This paper explores the role of complementary and integrative healthcare for improving whole person health, increasing access to evidence-based therapies, and curbing uncontrolled healthcare costs.
Massage Therapists who practice in Minnesota are currently not licensed, registered or otherwise regulated at a state level. This paper argues for licensure in Minnesota to create a uniform standard of conduct, simplify the regulatory burden on therapists, and fight human trafficking.
Since opioid misuse became the focus of urgent national attention, effort has been primarily directed toward opioid prescribing practices, emergency care in the event of overdose, and access to drug treatment programs. While these proximal measures to combat opioid misuse are enacted, the underlying causes for opioid misuse remain largely unaddressed. This paper explores the role of CIH providers in the solution to pain management in the United States.