Chiropractors
These health care providers are often grouped under the heading of alternative therapies. This creates division in care. So, on the one hand, regular medicine, which is under close supervision of the state and must comply with all sorts of state regulations, and on the other hand, alternative medicine, where health care providers themselves usually vouch for their knowledge and expertise.
Chiropractic falls under alternative health care. At least, this is the case in the Netherlands. In countries such as the United States, Australia and Canada, however, chiropractic is mainstream health care. Therefore, the cause that chiropractic care in the Netherlands is not (yet) fully recognized by the government says nothing about we beneficial effects of chiropractic care. Chiropractic is a relatively young medicine (about 100 years old) and therefore is not yet recognized in many countries. This is probably only a matter of time because chiropractic is helping so many people.
Now tell yourself, would you rather have a health care provider oversee the quality of care or an official do it?
How is the Quality of Chiropractic ensured
Chiropractic care, therefore, is not covered by government-recognized care. Fortunately, this does not mean that there is no attention to the quality of chiropractic care!
In fact, chiropractic has an extraordinarily strict form of supervision that has more stringent regulations in many areas than mainstream medicine. This oversight comes mainly through the chiropractic (professional) associations such as NCA, SCN and NVSC.
These organizations consist of chiropractors from the field itself. Thus, these specialists are directly involved in the delivery of care and thus have a strong interest themselves in being well known to the target population. Supplemented by lawyers, they thus provide self-imposed regulation that oversees quality of care.
This regulation is also supported by health insurance companies that only reimburse care from chiropractic specialists who provide high-quality care and are members of a professional association. As a result, chiropractors who do not meet high quality standards do not receive reimbursement from health insurance, strongly discouraging this policy.
As a result, supervision within chiropractic is actually more stringent than for many areas of regular health care.
Advantage of position in Alternative Health Care
Chiropractic care is probably the best known and most widely practiced care outside of mainstream medicine. For this reason, chiropractic is also a form of care that is often compared to other health care providers such as osteopaths and manual therapists.
Chiropractic, because of its position in alternative care, has a unique advantage in that chiropractic is always self-prompted to provide even greater quality.
In addition to a great deal of attention to the medical aspect, the training also focuses on issues concerning running your own practice and ensuring quality. Because of this, chiropractors often have extensive experience in ensuring quality and good care before they start their own practice or before they join the workforce. It is precisely the fact that the government does not provide for this that has allowed chiropractic to hold it in high esteem itself and to build a great deal of expertise in it.
Not surprisingly, chiropractic care is reimbursed by health insurance companies because these parties see that the chiropractor often provides high-quality care so that clients of insurance companies experience better health
The Future of Chiropractic
Chiropractic is growing very fast in the Netherlands. More and more people are familiar with chiropractic care. For this reason, therefore, chiropractic is expected to eventually enter the realm of mainstream medicine.
Chiropractors, however, will always ensure that internal quality requirements will remain. After all, there is no one who can judge the quality of care as well as the chiropractor himself in conjunction with the client.
Because that always remains the driving force behind chiropractic: The best possible health for our clients.
