I went for my very first acupuncture treatment today, and doing so had me wondering about health insurance and non-traditional forms of health care. Does your health insurance cover acupuncture treatment? Does the answer to that question influence your decision to pursue this kind of treatment?
My decision to try acupuncture came shortly after an incredibly horrific week of allergy symptoms. I’ve written several articles and blogs in the past that describe a little bit about what I deal with when my allergies go haywire. It’s unpleasant, to put it mildly.
I’ve already been through most of what Western medicine can offer in order to try and help me with my allergies. I’ve had a few years of allergy shots, but I stopped when those no longer seemed effective. I take antihistamines daily, and frequently require an additional dose of an additional kind of antihistamine when I am exposed to so many allergens that my usual drugs don’t do what I need them too. I’ve developed a tolerance to quite a few antihistamines over the years, which means that none of those will do me any good anymore. I decided it was time to try something non-traditional.
Acupuncture has been used to fight fatigue, to help ease back pain, to relieve arthritis, and even as a means of helping with infertility. It is a way to balance the body’s many systems. Years ago, someone recommended that I try acupuncture for my allergies, but it has taken until now for me to follow through with that. My allergists treated the symptoms of my allergies, but did not attempt to find a cure. Acupuncture looks that the source of a medical problem, and works to find a solution.
One of the first things my acupuncturist asked me was if I had health insurance. Unlike many doctors, my acupuncturist was perfectly willing to treat me even though I had absolutely no form of health insurance. She only asked because if I was going to try and submit a claim to a health insurance company, there was a certain format she needed to follow when she wrote her notes. I got a discount on the cost of today’s session because I paid the full amount with a credit card, (which saved her the trouble of billing me later).
Earlier this year Aetna Life Insurance Co, (which does sell health insurance as well), was fined $65,000 for denying over 200 claims related to acupuncture treatment. The claims were filed between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2010. An investigation decided that Aetna wrongfully denied 12.6% of the claims it received related to acupuncture during that time frame, and the insurance company had to pay a total of $16,274, plus 12% interest, to it’s affected customers. It makes me wonder if other health insurance companies handle claims regarding acupuncture the way Aetna did.
Image by SuperFantastic on Flickr