Alternative therapy at state expense: Study looks at Medicaid coverage of nonconventional care for children: A study by a University of Michigan family practitioner shows that 3/4 of the states reimburse for some alternative medical treatments given to children covered by their Medicaid programs. “The percentage of states that have agreed to pay for such services ranges from 74 percent for chiropractic down to 11

percent for naturopathy. Several states allow children to see an alternative practitioner as their primary care physician, or to

see alternative providers under Medicaid’s preventive screening, immunization, vision, dental and hearing program. Terrence Steyer, M.D., a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and lecturer in the U-M Departments of Family Medicine and

Internal Medicine, conducted the survey of 46 state Medicaid programs to get a sense of how far the current trend toward

alternative medicine had extended into state-funded pediatric care…. Alternative medicine is usually defined as care not generally taught at American medical schools nor provided at U.S.

hospitals. It spans the spectrum from vitamins and herbal supplements to acupuncture and hypnosis.”