Prayer Aids Healing, HMO Execs Think
In a finding that could have implications for health care coverage, more than 90% of HMO executives believe that personal prayer, meditation or religious practices can aid in medical treatment or expedite the healing process.
A survey of HMO executives, which will be released today at a meeting in Boston--co-sponsored by Harvard Medical School’s Department of Continuing Education--also reported that nearly three-fourths of HMO professionals believe spirituality can reduce health care costs.
In addition, about the same portion of HMO executives thinks God or some higher power sometimes intervenes to improve the medical condition of a seriously ill person.
The survey results are a centerpiece of discussion during the three-day conference on “Spirituality and Healing in Medicine,” which ends Tuesday. The survey’s findings underscore a growing acceptance throughout the medical community of the role spirituality plays in the healing process.
The survey questioned 300 HMO professionals at the American Assn. of Health Plans’ annual meeting held earlier this year and closely match a similar survey of physicians conducted last year about religion, spirituality and medicine.
However, the survey of HMO executives also suggests it may be some time before spiritual and meditative practices receive some coverage from health care providers. The survey showed that 90% of health care plans currently disregard the link between spirituality and well being.
And for HMOs to provide more health care coverage for spiritual practices, three-fourths of executives said they would need to see direct evidence of clinical effectiveness.
About two-thirds of the HMO executives said they would support more coverage of spiritual practices if it could be shown it saves money and increases patient satisfaction.
The conference, attended by medical and religious scholars from across the country, was sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation. The foundation was established in 1987 and has since funded a host of scientific studies and seminars to explore moral and spiritual issues in science.