Medicare Trend

Patients often ask me what are the latest trends concerning TCM. I tell them that because TCM is such a new field in Western medicine, I consider the very question you asked as symbolic of a trend. A previous trend that now should be considered fact is that TCM is established as a viable field in the Western healthcare system.

The trend I want to discuss today concerns insurance coverage, especially governmental insurance coverage. Many of my patients are elderly. They often ask me when I can start treating patients through Medicare. I used to tell them that I was optimistic that Medicare will start covering certain TCM modalities soon. After awhile, they started tuning me out.

However, due to the constant educating of healthcare and governmental leaders by our own TCM advocates, Medicare is now covering Acupuncture for lower back pain. Now, some of you, maybe thinking big deal. Take in the fact that an TCM practitioner can only treat pain by way of supervision by a Western provider, it doesn’t look like a major happening.

However, when you look at it from the perspective of trends then it takes on a whole different perspective. Trends are a process that envelops that certain area. A trend does not become a reality overnight. A trend signifies that the process that starting a change in an area that will become material in some future point.

If one takes this perspective, then the inclusion in Medicare, regardless of how small it currently seems to be, indicates that TCM will make big inroads in Western medicine, in the future. It may take 5, 10 or even 20 years to see this trend turn into a major impact. When I say major impact, I mean the point where TCM practitioners are able to function within the Western medical system freely, in all phases.