The economics professor of Tilburg University Prof Peter Kooreman and applied scientist professor of Leiden University Eric Baars studied the correlation of cost per patient for conventional practitioner, and practitioner with additional training in complementary and alternative medicine using a data set from a health insurer for some correlation.

The results were adjusted for demographic composition of various groups of patients.

The patients of practitioner with additional training in anthroposophic medicine, homeopathy or acupuncture have substantial lower health care costs and lower mortality rates. This results from fewer hospital stays and fewer prescriptions drugs.

Furthermore they added from several other studies that patients treated with complementary and alternative medicine practitioner suffer more often form severe and chronic illnesses. The authors suggest if they “could control for severity and chronicity of illnesses, the estimated cost differences might be even larger”.

For more detail please read http://members.ziggo.nl/peterkooreman/gpcs.pdf