Approach

My practice utilizes a pro-active approach for the patient that emphasizes patient education, integration of specialties, and comprehensive care, vital in the cure of difficult and chronic problems, with the goal to help you to achieve a cure—not just control your symptoms. Patient education allows you to make the choices of lifestyle changes and therapeutic routines that suit your schedule.

The patient that seeks care for the first time from the Licensed Acupuncturist often does so after unsuccessful treatment from standard medicine. This is because insurance coverage of acupuncture and related physiotherapies may be difficult, and public knowledge of this field of medicine is still limited. Often, the patient is frustrated by the time that they decide to see if acupuncture can help where standard treatment has failed. Too often, the patient’s frustration is compounded by the fact that they still are in the dark as to the true nature of their condition. These days, patients often resort to the internet to better understand their medical problem, but these sites are often created to sell a product, not to provide a clear explanation.

My practice provides the time and care to professionally explain to the patient the details of their condition so that a step-by-step practical solution can be found. Human physiology is complex, and this process of understanding can be itself frustrating, but is often vitally important for the resolution of the health problem and prevention of recurrence. Also, since the body is so complexly regulated by the mind, understanding of the problem by the patient establishes a mind-body mechanism that is often an integral part of healing.

“The medical approach may vary widely between physicians and is very important when choosing health care providers.”

It is important to understand that therapy helps your body to correct itself, but it is your body that is ultimately doing the work. The body is not a machine. It is a living organism that needs to be set on a course that corrects dysfunction. Because of this a pro-active approach is vitally important. We have been taught that we can just mindlessly take pills, get surgery and not think about what our bodies are doing to heal. We often leave our care entirely in the hands of the experts, hoping that these people will fix us. Often, this is a frustrating experience. By depending on yourself to achieve a cure, manage your care, and utilze experts to help you, your chance of success will by greatly enhanced. Also, patient efforts to counter side effects of pharmaceutical medicines and to properly rehabilitate from surgical procedures with Complementary Medicine may be the key to your successful healthcare approach.

By utilizing a multi-disciplinary approach, difficult and chronic problems will be solved where a single therapy fails. Even within the practice of acupuncture a multi-disciplinary approach works best. Combining the various physiotherapies of TCM insures a greater chance of success. Acupuncture alone often works well, and this is the easiest and most lucrative way to practice, with the least time spent on each patient, yet combining acupuncture with herbal medicine, dietary supplements, tuina physiotherapies, and patient instruction increases the chance of a speedy recovery and cure exponentially. Each of these disciplines acts in a symbiotic way to enhance the effectiveness of the other. This is my approach. It was arrived at both by personal experience as a patient, and by years of experience treating difficult cases.

"Combining TCM with the care of your medical doctors in a complementary and integrative approach will often increase the chance of success tenfold."

Today, many medical doctors are offering less invasive and harmful approaches to your medical care, such as prolotherapy for the arthritic joints, bioidentical hormone therapy for endocrine dysfunction, laser surgery and other minimally invasive techniques for cancerous tumors and spinal repair. Often, these techniques require much follow-up and complementary care to be fully successful. My practice provides both the modern medical knowledge and approach and the array of time proven therapies to insure a greater chance of success. By combining the traditional knowledge of centuries of Chinese medicine with the latest research, and using the whole array of therapeutic protocol, with acupuncture, direct soft tissue physiotherapy, herbal prescription, nutrient medicine, instruction in targeted stretch and exercise, dietary change and ergonomic changes, you can count on a better outcome. The time intensive care provided will help you understand laboratory and radiology reports and fully integrate the findings with your Complementary protocol. Why take a chance on a healthy outcome? Utilize a professional herbalist and Complementary physician, and a fully trained and experienced acupuncturist to obtain the greatest benefits from this type of care.

Insurance coverage and the use of health savings accounts and wellness plans at work are an important part of your health management, and this office participates in numerous medical provider plans from various insurers, and works closely with the patient to explain and simplify reimbursement from a variety of resources

My participation in such medical provider networks as Cigna, Beechstreet, Aetna, Blue Shield of California, United HealthCare, MultiPlan, Clarispoint, AcuCare, and others insures that your care will be covered if your policy is contracted to cover acupuncture services. Since my practice is small, it is best that the patient contacts customer service by calling the phone number listed on your card and asking about coverage for acupuncture and my participation in your network. Sometimes, plans will also cover out of network providers, and if I am not listed, ask about this type of coverage. You should also ask about deductibles, which are the amounts that you are required to pay out of pocket at the start of your calendar year for all health services, limitations of coverage, and what types of medical conditions are considered as evidence-supported in the use of acupuncture therapies.

If your plan does not cover acupuncture, or I am not a network provider and out-of-network coverage for acupuncture is not part of the plan, you may set up a health savings account, a wellness plan at work, or other reimbursable health package that will cover my services. A superbill from this office is given to accomodate such reimbursements. Information on these types of packages is provided by this physician.

Supporting Insurance Coverage of Acupuncture and Complementary Medicine

The right of Americans to choose acupuncture and Complementary Medicine in insurance coverage and in governmental health services has long been hampered by failure of our government to finally recognize these low cost and effective health services and mandate coverage options. Currently, popular demand and government interest have resulted in voluntary coverage of a limited nature to our nation's health plans, but often the patients are confused as to the actual coverage benefits and procedures, even when they pay for these options. Passage of fundamental coverage legislation is all important for the the profession to achieve the ability to serve US citizens without discrimination, and to achieve freedom of choice in healthcare.

Supporting the Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act HR1479

"With the upcoming 2008 healthcare reform proposals that include offering of federal employee coverage to any US citizen, the Maurice Hinchey Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act, trapped in committee since 1993, must be brought forward for a vote in Congress. If many citizens would take a minute to contact their congressman or congresswoman to urge cosponsor of this legislation, success would be achieved."

The legislation in Congress to add acupuncture as a benefit coverage under both Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program has failed to emerge from committee for a vote since introduction in 1993 by Congressman Maurice Hinchey of the 22nd District in New York. The failure of this bill to come to a vote, which would surely pass in Congress, is due to lobbying by large medical business concerns, which results in a failure to generate the necessary 61 cosponsors. In 2007, 59 cosponsors signed onto the bill.

Since the bill incurs minimal expense and causes no harm to the constituents, and would not be required, but rather would be an optional coverage to plan participants, its passage would have little objective reasoning for failure. Its passage is necessary to insure the right of option to acupuncture and Complementary Medicine to all Americans, if they so choose, and to stop discriminatory practices by the insurance industry, which is guided legally by Medicare and FEHB legislation.

Since the upcoming proposals of healthcare reform by President Barack Obama and others involve providing the same healthcare insurance options presented in FEHB to any uninsured citizen, the passage of HR1479 is very important in 2008 for anyone that believes that our government should provide this freedom of choice to utilize TCM and acupuncture in their health plan. As stated, any citizen that chooses to opt for a plan that does not cover TCM and acupuncture would still have this option under the legislation.

It is vitally important that you write a simple letter to your Congressman or Congresswoman expressing your opinion that HR1479, the Hinchey Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act, be passed. This is especially effective since our own Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi is the House Speaker, and thus very influential. You may email Congresswoman Pelosi at her website, www.house.gov/pelosi/contact/contact.html, or write her at:

Office of the Speaker, Nancy Pelosi H-323, US Capitol Washington, DC 20515 The phone contact is (212) 225-0100

The South Bay is represented by Congresswoman Jackie Speier and may be contacted at: 2413 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 The phone contact is (202) 225-3531 & email is found at the website: http://speier.house.gov/email-jackie.shtml

HR1479, the Hinchey Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act, provides a foundation for legal provision of acupuncture healthcare coverage that is missing from our system today. All insurance coverage is based on the Medicare fee schedule and Medicare Part B fee-for-service plan rules. HR1479 would require that acupuncture be finally covered under Medicare Part B, but would not require that health care providers be required to accept Medicare patients, or that acupuncturists be required to accept Medicare patients.

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB) provides health insurance to federal workers, their dependants, federal retirees and their survivors, and may soon be offered to any US citizen that has trouble affording health care. These plan beneficiaries would have a choice from a wide variety of health insurance plans, including HMO, PPO and high deductible catastrophic care policies. HR1479 will thus mandate a choice of acupuncture coverage in the list for minimum benefits for those that these plans serve, and would lay the foundation for the end of discrimination of acupuncture services for all US health plan participants. Currently, about one fourth of insurance plans in the FEHB system voluntarily offer acupuncture benefits due to public demand, but many of these plans only offer coverage when provided by an M.D. or D.O., who do not receive the comprehensive medical school training in acupuncture that the Licensed Acupuncturist receives. An M.D. or D.O. may practice acupuncture without training because of the proven safety of the practice, although a small number of M.D.’s have now gone on to earn an additional medical degree in TCM and become Licensed Acupuncturists. HR1479 would insure that L.Ac.’s, or Licensed Acupuncturists are included in plans.

The European Union mandated coverage for Complementary Medicine and acupuncture in 2006 and has proven that this coverage is cost effective and saves the national health care expenditure much money in the long run in quality of life health care expenditure. The preventative nature of TCM and acupuncture decreases the incidence of future medical problems and expenditures and thus benefits even the patients that do not choose this coverage, by bringing down the cost of policies for us all.

The current debate on health care reform has generated a lot of emotional response from the left, right and center, and little substantive progress on the part of the public. The public has been suckered into believing a lot of untrue and alarming progaganda. Where does this propaganda originate? Of course, much of the negative diatribe originates with the industries that would lose money if the legislative reform passed. The individual needs to take an objective look at health care reform and decide what is real. The current legislation does not mandate a government administered program of health care coverage, although the percentage of our citizens enjoying a government run healthcare program such as Medicare continues to rise, and now over 50% of our nation's health care is coming from the government. The cost of Medicare is largely determined by the free market, and the lack of control of this market by the consumer is now alarming. Many industry tricks have developed over the years to increase health care costs, including inflation of pricing determined by insurance network gimmicks, increased administrative costs, most of which are unnecessary, and many of which are intended to delay or deny payment, and an increasing percentage of overall health care cost going to the pharmaceutical industry, who charges sometimes 3 times the amount in the United States that it charges for the same product in another industrialized country. Each year the public is kept in the dark about health care spending, and the costs have become outrageous. As long as the public continues to pay without scrutiny, and blocks the federal government from enacting real health care reform, there will be no relief from the skyrocketing costs of insurance and healthcare. If we all put our minds to it, and overcome the fight between political parties and social groups, the American public can take the steps necessary to bring down health care costs and stop the industry from denying care and causing unnecessary suffering.

Hopefully, we will also be able to achieve some progress in insuring that US citizens have the freedom of choice in healthcare that has resulted in lower national health care costs and better disease and injury prevention through mandated coverage option of acupuncture and Complementary Medicine in Europe and many other nations. Support of this low cost and effective medical care comes both from the individual decisions to utilize TCM and integrate it into their own health care, and from support for the Hinchey Act, which adds no cost burden at all to the federal government.

Above: Acupuncture Points
— Photo by Michele Clement