Ways to Get Acupuncture Coverage

Most patients love acupuncture and have recommended their family members and friends to come and try it. After all, at Healing Circle we treat a variety of health conditions and a wide range of patient age group i..e 4 weeks old babies to octogenarian and older folks. 

Whilst some insurance cover acupuncture, patients often ask what can they do to offset their out of pocket costs. Here are a few of our recommendations :

1. Talk to your HR Dept
   If your insurance plan is self-funded i.e. if you work for a big corporation, changes are they can write a policy to include acupuncture and other alternative therapies. Your HR Dept needs to know that a lot of you want acupuncture covered, so start by gathering signatures or emails to the higher ups.

2. Set up a Flexible Spending Accounts
   These are pre tax dollars set aside from your pay checks to pay for any out of pocket costs such as co-pays, band aids, contact lenses and acupuncture sessions. Be sure to ask your HR Dept for a list of things that are covered. Most often they cover acupuncture but herbs, supplements and our lab tests are not. 

3. Health Reimbursement Account (HRA)
   It is not uncommon that companies are providing insurance coverage with very high deductibles i.e. think $3000 - $5000 per year. It is really hard for an individual or a family to reach these deductibles unless something major happened e.g. cancer, surgery etc. As such, some companies provide employees with a pre loaded credit card e.g. $700 to use for out of pocket medical expenses while trying to reach these deductibles. Remember, once you exhaust the funds, they won't reload. So use them wisely and some patients have used those HRA credit cards to pay for their treatments.
   
   If you are unsure and need further assistance, call us at 909-590-4183.