TCIM in Economic Terms – The Potential to Reduce the Cost of Care

Long-term practical experience and cooperation between conventional medicine and TCIM has led to a number of available studies on the benefits of this cooperation. Both the therapeutic effect on patients and the cost effectiveness are covered in the studies. The EUROCAM document CAM 2020 – The Contribution of CAM to Sustainable Health Care in Europe (see page 149) is another clear and comprehensive source of information and arguments in favour of TCIM.

In this chapter we focus on assessing the cooperation between conventional medicine and CAM financially. We present the results of several foreign researches which confirm that the combination of conventional therapy and alternative therapies significantly increases the effectiveness of the treatment. This positively impacts, not only on the patient, but it also reduces the cost of healthcare considerably.

Dutch Research on the Cost-Effectiveness of CAM (2006–2009)

A Systematic Overview of Economic Assessments of CAM Published in 2001–2010 (USA)

The study shows that participants of the BHI programme (yoga and meditation teaching) visit a doctor 43% less often

Cost saving by CAM practice