Medicare announced that, as of January of 2020, it will cover acupuncture only for chronic low back pain. Traditionally, Medicare did not cover acupuncture and it will continue this policy for acupuncture other than for chronic low back pain.
Accordingly, Medicare Plan B will cover acupuncture for chronic low back pain: up to 12 visits in 90 days.
Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is defined as:
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- Lasting 12 weeks or longer;
- nonspecific, in that it has no identifiable systemic cause (i.e., not associated with metastatic, inflammatory, infectious, etc. disease);
- not associated with surgery; and
- not associated with pregnancy.
The acupuncturist must be under the supervision of a physician and billing is done by the physician as part of physician’s service. In Tenafly Acupuncture, Young Lee, L.Ac. will be treating chronic low back pain with acupuncture under the supervision of Anna Lee, MD and the billing will be done by Bergen Pain & Rehab LLC that is owned by Anna Lee MD.