We’ve been treating back pain in our San Antonio spine clinic for several years now, and one thing is for certain:  chronic back pain is incredibly common and due to the failure of the typical treatments, a large number of people are living in pain needlessly.

The most commonly utilized treatments for chronic back pain have a poor success rate statisitically, but new treatment methods are now providing relief for even back pain sufferers who have suffered for many years.

One of these new breakthroughs that we use in our San Antonio office is spinal decompression. Spinal decompression is a high-tech form of spinal traction that reduces spinal disc bulging, enhances disc hydration and nutrition, and mobilizes spinal joints and connective tissue.  When used appropriately, the results are often nothing short of amazing.

Unfortunately, spinal decompression continues to be underutilized as a back pain treatment for a couple of reasons.  The early marketing for spinal decompression was often hype-filled and factually inaccurate, leading to a certain level of distrust among patients and doctors alike.  Although decompression has statistically proven to be the most successful treatment for most serious types of back pain, the early marketing for it promoted it as a panacea for all back pain sufferers.  Spinal decompression does enjoy an excellent success rate, but it is not effective in every patient and it is simply not appropriate for every back pain sufferer.

The other reason that spinal decompression continues to  be underutilized for treating back pain is due to the overall system of health care delivery. All new health care procedures face similar challenges in the United States.

Basically, insurance companies usually refuse coverage for health care procedures that do not have an established procedure code.  In the U.S., the American Medical Association is responsible for producing the procedure codes, but they don’t make new codes until there are reasonably high numbers of doctors utilizing a given new procedure. Doctors are usually reluctant to invest the money in the equipment and/or training necessary to provide one of these new treatments unless they know they will be reimbursed for the treatment by health insurance companies.  This brings us full-circle to the insurance companies not covering procedures that don’t have an established procedure code. Because of this system, most new medical treatments are not widely used for several years until consumer demand gradually pushes more doctors to start providing the treatment. 

Due to the lack of insurance coverage for spinal decompression, many of the back pain patients we consult with at our san antonio spinal decompression clinic will opt to go with insurance-covered treatment methods. Unfortunately many of these continue to live in pain for years and spend thousands of dollars in insurance co-pays and deductibles on the standard back pain treatments without any lasting relief.

Some of these back pain sufferers eventually undergo surgery hoping for a cure for their symptoms.   About half of the patients who do seek a surgical treatment for their back pain find out that the surgery either does not help or makes things worse.

 Although spinal decompression is not effective in every case, it does get good to excellent results for the vast majority of back pain patients. Some patients we’ve consulted with have opted to go the surgery route because they think it will be less expensive due to it being covered by insurance, but most back surgeries wind up being more expensive to the patient than spinal decompression.

Many back pain patients don’t realize in advance that the co-payments for a high-priced medical procedure like back surgery will usually run several thousand dollars.  With no insurance coverage at all, spinal decompression typically costs the patient less out of pocket than an average back surgery (if they are paying an insurance co-payment of 10% or more), and a lot less than a complicated back surgery.

For the majority of people suffering from serious back pain, spinal decompression is statistically the most effective treatment available and in the long-run is usually the most cost-effective treatment available.

Dr. Ronald Fielden, D.C. and Dr. Michael Golab, D.C. are the treating doctors at South Texas Non Surgical Spinal Center.  Visit their website for more about spinal decompression and their San Antonio back pain treatment program.

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1. Spinal Decompression For Treating Disc Related Pain
2. Spinal Decompression Or Back Surgery, Which Is The Right Choice For You?
3. Spinal Decompression – Observations From My San Antonio Office
4. Spinal Decompression Therapy: Is it for Me?
5. A closer look at Sciatica