Government Payments to Physicians in Quebec
Reference
Herron, R.E., Hillis, S.L., Mandarino, J.V., Orme-Johnson, D.W., and Walton, K.W. The Impact of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Government Payments to Physicians in Quebec. The American Journal of Health Promotion 10(3), pp. 208-216. 1994
Summary
Purpose: This study evaluated whether government medical paymentsin Quebec were affected by the TranscendentalMeditation® technique.
Design: This prospective study used a pre and postintervention design in which government payments for physicians' services were reviewed for 3 years before and up to 7 years after subjects started the technique. Payment data were adjusted for aging and year-specific variation (including inflation) using normative data.
Subjects: A volunteer group of 677 provincial health insurance enrollees was evaluated. The subjects had chosen to practice the TM technique before they were selected to enter the study. The subjects (348 men, 329 women) had diverse occupations. Their average age was 38 years and ranged from 18 to 71 years at the start of the TM program.
Participants: 60 hypertensive African American men and women individuals, older than 20 years
Interventions:The TM technique of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is a standardized procedure practiced for 15 to 20 minutes twice daily while sitting comfortably with eyes closed.
Setting: Province of Quebec, Canada.
Results:During the 3 years before starting the TM program, the adjusted payments to physicians for treating the subjects did not change significantly. After beginning TM practice, subjects' adjusted expenses declined significantly. The several methods used to assess the rate of decline showed estimates ranging from 5% to 7% annually.
Conclusions: The results suggest that the TM technique reduces government payments to physicians. However, because of the sampling method used, the generalizability of these results to wider populations could not be evaluated.
This study was supported in part by the Lancaster Foundation, Bethesda, Md.
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