The impact of the transcendental meditation program on government payments to physicians in Quebec: an update.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether practice of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique can affect medical expenses.


METHODS
The evaluation was a quasi experimental, longitudinal, cost-minimization study.


METHODS
Province of Quebec, Canada.


METHODS
This study involved 1418 Quebec health insurance enrollees who practiced the TM technique compared with 1418 subjects who were randomly selected from enrollees of the same age, sex, and region. TM subjects had chosen to begin the technique prior to learning about and choosing to enter the study.


METHODS
This 14-year, pre- and postintervention study retrospectively assessed government payments to physicians for treating the TM and comparison groups. Other medical expense data for individuals were unavailable. Data were inflation-adjusted. For each subject, least squares regression slopes were calculated to estimate pre- and postintervention annual rates of change in payments. We compared the groups' means and 1%, 5%, and 10% trimmed means (robust estimators) of the slopes.


RESULTS
Before starting meditation, the yearly rate of increase in payments between groups was not significantly different (p > .17). After commencing meditation, the TM group's mean payments declined 1% to 2% annually. The comparison group's payments increased up to 11.73% annually over 6 years. There was a 13.78% mean annual difference (p = .0017).


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that the TM technique reduced payments to physicians between 5% and 13% annually relative to comparison subjects over 6 years. Randomized studies are recommended.
Herron
R E
RE
Department of Management and Public Administration, Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa 52557, USA.
Hillis
S L
SL
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation / Q000523:psychology*; D010820:Physicians / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011792:Quebec; D011897:Random Allocation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires