Finalized CMS Rule Provides Medicare Coverage for Acupuncture Back Pain Treatment

CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) has finalized a proposed rule to provide Medicare coverage to chronic lower back pain patients who access acupuncture. This is partly due to an effort to reduce the dependency on opioids in treating contract pain.

Medicare will now cover up to 12 acupuncture sessions in 90 days with an additional eight sessions for patients with chronic lower back pain that show improvement. In announcing their decision, CMS highlighted a study that showed patients 65 years or older who received acupuncture treatments gained improvement in both function and pain.

In a Forbes article on this new rule, the publication notes that the Mayo Clinic has said that acupuncture has been used effectively to reduce discomfort for a variety of conditions including:

• Chemotherapy-induced and postoperative nausea and vomiting
• Dental pain
• Headaches, including tension headaches and migraines
• Labor pain
• Low back pain
• Neck pain
• Osteoarthritis
• Menstrual cramps

I have helped many patients to get relief from discomfort and to build better health. You can learn more about  how acupuncture works and the conditions that can be treated in our acupuncture section.