Katherine Schostok, executive
director of DePaul University College of Law's Mary
and Michael Jaharis Health Law Institute, was recently quoted by
InBusiness magazine. The
article, 'Can
alternative medicine lower costs?', examines the potential
health and financial benefits to, as well as the arguments against, expanding insurance to cover
complementary and alternative medicine. DePaul Law's Journal
of Health Care Law is among those groups advocating for greater
funding into evidence-based research in determining the efficacy of
alternative treatments, which include chiropractic,
acupuncture and massage therapies.
According
to Schostok, "There is definitely a push to do more studies to
look at these alternative kinds of medicines, but right now it's
pretty limited." Among the journal's recommendations are allowing
the Affordable Care Act to reimburse for evidence-based alternative
treatments, enabling the the National Center for Complementary and
Integrative Health to determine standards of success and combining
intellectual property protection and government awards for proven
alternative treatments.