Medicare Will Cover Acupuncture for Chronic Back Pain

https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-2020/acupuncture-chronic-back-pain.html?cmp=SNO-ICM-FB-MAM-HLTH&socialid=3140158947

by Dena Bunis, AARP, January 22, 2020

Medicare enrollees with chronic low back pain will be able to get up to 20 acupuncture treatments each year, under a new policy that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Tuesday.

Initially, beneficiaries who have had lower back pain for 12 weeks or longer will be entitled to up to 12 visits over a 90-day period, CMS officials say. The treatments will be covered as long as the pain is not associated with other ailments, such as an infectious disease or surgery. If someone's pain decreases, Medicare will cover an additional eight sessions, but the program will pay for no more than 20 treatments a year. And if a patient does not improve or gets worse, Medicare will not pay for more sessions.

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