During the past several decades, acupuncture has gone from the fringes to the mainstream. More than 13,000 studies have been conducted in 60 countries to examine acupuncture as a therapy for pain, stroke, mood disorders, sleep disorders, inflammation and many other conditions. It’s now one of the most commonly available complementary therapies worldwide, with an estimated 3 million American adults undergoing treatments each year.
However, until recently, if you were interested in trying acupuncture, you likely would have had to pay for the therapy out of pocket. This changed in early 2020 when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) decided to cover acupuncture for people with chronic low back pain. Medicare now covers between 12 and 20 treatments a year, depending on how you respond to the therapy.
“In the past, people would come to us as their last resort. Now, many of them are seeing us as an early course of action,” says Sara Bublitz, a licensed acupuncturist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
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