Please note, I’m not a medical practitioner. Consult with your doctor for diagnostic and treatment options related to any health conditions. That being said, suppose you’ve been on an endless pain relief scavenger hunt. Despite concerted efforts, you’re no further with symptom abatement. Maybe it’s time to step outside conventional boxes. Physical and/or psychological incapacitation keeps us stuck. You’re unable to do the things you need to accomplish or wish to do. What if there is potential for a reprieve, no matter how slight, at no cost to you except for a few minutes of time? Would that be life-altering? If nothing else, the data that you gather from this blog series might offer possibilities for a more informed, comprehensive understanding. Use the information for future conversations with your well-care practitioner(s). Best wishes along your healing journey.
Hard to miss United Health Care’s recent unfavorable and tragic press. I won’t enlighten if you’re not in the know. We’ll leave it at an evident sign of the times. Extraordinary changes are desperately needed in US health care and insurance industries. I don’t condone violence as a means to that end. Nor do I have the savviness or bandwidth to offer solutions to fix systemic woes. What I do know is that when our bodies and brains aren’t working well, we suffer, our productivity declines, and our emotional wherewithal diminishes. Consequently, those adversities tank our motivation to begin and abilities to follow-through.
Why Call Out UHG?
Why did I bring up United Health (UHG) specifically? Because UHG gets a simultaneous thumbs up and thumbs down. First the thumbs up. UHG commissioned a study back in 2020, one that I learned about a few days ago, that I view as a positive step. 5 years ago from the day I’m writing this blog an episode of the podcast “Like Mind, Like Body” entitled, Pain Is An Emotion featured an interview with Dr. Bethany Ranes, Ph.D. Dr. Ranes is a cognitive neuroscientist who worked in UHG’s Research and Development (R&D) group.
Note: “Like Mind, Like Body” is an excellent resource to build your mind-body toolkit. However, it appears new episodes ceased at the end of 2024. The archive is still available and highly recommended via Curablehealth.com.
If you’ve ever filed an insurance claim or attempted to obtain medical services that fall outside conventional medical practices, and been denied coverage, you may be as surprised as I was that UHG’s study took an unconventional route considering their archetypal business model. In an effort to understand and address chronic pain conditions as a means to improve patient outcomes, UHG tasked Dr Ranes’ R&D group to explore chronic pain conditions. That doesn’t sound exceptional, does it? Here’s the twist. Typically, chronic pain is viewed and addressed through the lens of physical or structural injury and impairments or infectious diseases and the like. This study examined physical pain by going to the brain.
Migration Toward Mainstream
The migration toward examining psychophysiological disorders, in other words, how the brain plays a role in physical symptoms and vice versa, is becoming more common. As noted in my January 2025 blog, Are Chronic Symptoms a Character Flaw? When Your Traits Feel Like Betrayals, medical schools including Columbia University; Harvard University; University of Pittsburgh; University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); as well as the Mayo Clinic are among those with mind-body curriculum, research, and treatment protocols. Those are prestigious institutions advancing this field of study. Think of the possibilities to expand your well-care diagnostic and treatment options if insurance companies also embrace the influence of the mind in relation to physical ailments. For example,
Why Popping Another Pill, Another Dose May Seem Like it Works...Then it Doesn’t
Throwing antacids at a stomach might soothe the tummy for a bit. If stored big or little ‘T’ trauma is causing the brain to release the stress-related inflammatory chemicals that are stirring things up through the digestive tract, then those antacids will never resolve the instigator long-term.
Research out of Johns Hopkins Medicine* and other medical research institutes have also discovered that the “little brain in the gut” also known as the Enteric Nervous System (ENS) may play a role in sending signals from the gut back to the central nervous system. That reverse messaging is thought to trigger mood changes such as anxiety and depression. Then we end up in a looping situation of digestive and bowel problems influenced by our nervous system followed by our gastro system tanking our emotional well-being. Holistic information is powerful. Therefore, excavating beyond the obvious symptoms could lessen your suffering. Indeed the tricks are finding someone competently well-versed in holistic approaches, dedicated to taking the time to get to know you and wade through the layers of what’s really going on, and the insurance to cover the myriad of tests and subsequent services.
*The Brain-Gut Connection, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-brain-gut-connection
What’s Significant About Becoming Mainstream?
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
Greater receptivity could mean that trauma counseling; psychological or psychiatric services that address the origins of that pain and prevent chronic flares or the onset of other migrating mind-body symptoms; meditation retreats; yoga classes; and massages, if not typically covered by your insurance, may one day be commonly included in medical insurance plans. Some insurance companies already cover a wide range of services, others only for a limited number of visits or types of practices. Coverage also varies depending upon health plan category pricing levels.
Even if mental health services are currently covered, many plans limit the number of sessions to no more than a handful. Therapeutic counseling is rarely a one and done. On-going therapy is pricey. On the other hand, think about the price tag of surgery, pre and post-surgical meds, recovery downtime, home health care aides, and all other ancillary costs. Not a drop in the bucket. Moreover, if the surgery doesn’t resolve the issues, then the knife was a needless physical, emotional, financial, time-investment endeavor. With the rising costs of invasive health care procedures and pharmaceuticals, it seems to behoove insurance companies to advocate for preventative and more cost-effective practices before undertaking drastic measures in non-emergency cases, if that is a route that you prefer.
Suppose psychological or psychiatric interventions don’t work for your issue, which is entirely plausible. Therapy isn’t the magic sauce for everyone. At least all your body parts are intact, without the invasive measure costs, recovery down time, risks of infections, scarring and so on. Science is still in the pioneering stages of mind-body understanding. The full scope of the brain is complex beyond current comprehension. Add to that individual uniqueness, then that complexity escalates.
Thumbs Down-UHG Study Follow-up
Now for the thumbs down. Unfortunately, after a CEO transition (not the one due to the tragic incident in the recent news), the UHG study clinic was dismantled and no formal findings were published. The work that Dr. Bethany Ranes continues to do after leaving UHG and starting her own applied research lab furthers the research into the field of pain reprocessing therapy (PRT). She remains committed to chronic pain advancements and “applying cutting-edge neuroscience to issues related to health, performance, and overall well-being” as she explained to me in an email exchange. Maybe someday UHG will take notice of Dr. Ranes’ current work and others in the field, reignite the stalled study, and thus expand coverage options.
