An alternative to prescription drugs

Hidden in a shaded building in the Town of Ithaca is a secret deep within the world of medicine that is trying to break out. That secret: there is an alternative.


The Integrative Medicine Center (IMC) is a purely alternative medical care center with a staff comprised of specialists from the Ithaca area. Their aim is to make the patient a better person, as opposed to simply treating a single issue the patient may have.


"What we try to do is look at the patient as a whole," said Esther Sackett, an employee at the center, "We try to bring all of our doctors together and communicate well with the patient to try to treat them as a person, not as a number."


This facility is part of a new trend which has patients moving from modern pharmaceutical medicine to integrative procedures, despite a lack of coverage from most insurance companies nationwide.

The inception of the IMC
           

The IMC was built in 2001 under the supervision of Dr. Ann Wang, a licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist. Wang recruited the help of specialists from around the area, expanding the services the center could offer with each addition.


Currently the center offers services such as preventive medicine, naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, pain reduction services and a stress reduction program. The goal is to treat the issue that the patient presents as well as improve their mental, physical, and spiritual health.

Healing powers without pills


Recent trends show the general public is taking notice of the healing powers of integrative procedures. A study done in the Journal of the American Medical Association found 42 percent of the general population used at least one form of alternative therapy by 1999, a 9 percent increase from the beginning of the decade.


Furthermore, at the University of Kentucky, a study showed over-the-counter herbal remedy sales doubling between 1991 and 1996. By the end of the 1990s, the U.S. public was spending $36 to $47 billion a year on alternative therapies.


"In the past, patients were satisfied with prescriptions," said William Boggs, the Medical Director at University of Maryland's Integrative Medicine Center in Baltimore. "Now people want more than that. They want to be able to talk about their health in general instead of just taking a pill."

An out-of-pocket problem


However, since these treatments are still relatively new in the modern medical world, insurance companies are reluctant to provide assistance for patients seeking alternative therapy. While some treatments such as chiropractic work may be covered, most are not, presenting a problem for patients of lower income who find themselves having to pay completely out of pocket.


"Many carriers don't cover our services because there haven't been enough scientific studies to prove their effectiveness." Sackett said, "These practices have worked for 3,000 years over in the Far East so it seems silly to need to 'prove' it any further."

Taking action through education


Recently integrative medicine research facilities have been popping up in college campuses throughout the country. These centers can now be found at schools such as Duke, George Washington, Maryland, Michigan, San Francisco, and UCLA.


Dr. Boggs hopes that the increase in medical centers, such as his at Maryland, will help to change the lack of coverage insurance companies are willing to provide.
 

"Instead of sitting around and whining about what the insurance companies don't accept we need to do more research and prove that these treatments work," Boggs said.


He believes the research that can be done will help increase awareness of how valuable alternative treatments can be. With scientific proof of an effective treatment, insurance companies would have to take notice of the opportunity to treat the patient and provide coverage.


Esther Sackett knows that once this happens the secret will have finally gotten out.


"It would cost the government a lot less to give someone 10 acupuncture treatments as opposed to pain killers for years on end," she said, "You don't find a clinic like this in many other places of the country, but that might change in the future. It would take more communities to be as accepting of the idea as Ithaca has been."

Boggs said he is slightly more optimistic about the future of alternative and integrative medicine.


"In the future, I see conventional medical care dealing with a person in all aspects of their lives instead of sending a patient to different doctors," he said, "What might now be considered an alternative will soon be considered conventional."