Adding chiropractic care to your benefits plan will likely increase its value-for-dollar, finds a new survey.

The results of the study, which were prepared for the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, show that chiropractic care is more effective than other treatments for treating low back and neck pain.

“Chiropractic care stacks up very well clinically against other procedures and interventions. And it saves money to the system in the process,” says Gerard Clum, a chiropractor and spokesperson for the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress and president of Life Chiropractic College West in Hayward, California.

As for cost, chiropractic physician care for low back pain increases total annual per patient spending by $75 compared to medical physician care, while for neck pain, chiropractic physician care reduces total annual per patient spending by $302 compared to medical physician care.

And while chiropractic care for low back pain increases annual per patient spending, chiropractic treatments result in better clinical outcomes, which reduce savings down the road, says Clum.

“What this is suggesting is that actively promoting it [chiropractic care] would be a cost savings for the plan,” he says. “You can get better clinical outcomes and you can save money by putting these things [low back and neck pain] directly under chiropractic management.”

When considering effectiveness and cost together, chiropractic physician care for low back and neck pain is highly cost-effective and represents a good value in comparison to medical physician care, concludes the report.

“[C]hiropractic care for the treatment of low back and neck pain is likely to achieve equal or better health outcomes at a cost that compares very favorably to most therapies that are routinely covered in U.S. health benefit plans,” wrote the study’s authors.

“As a result, the addition of chiropractic coverage for the treatment of low back and neck pain at prices typically payable in U.S. employer-sponsored health benefit plans will likely increase value-for-dollar by improving clinical outcomes and either reducing total spending (neck pain) or increasing total spending (low back pain) by a smaller percentage than clinical outcomes improve.”