Workers Compensation and Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an accepted medical option for treating a work related injury. In 2007, the California Department of Industrial Relations made revisions to current workers compensation laws and deemed acupuncture to be a covered medical modality for injured workers. What this means to injured workers is an increase in treatment options and less reliance on pain medications and muscle relaxants. Natural relief from work related injuries is now an option and all of California workers need to be made aware that this amazing medicine is available to them.

Dealing with a work injury can not only leave you in pain, but also confused about your treatment options. Often, companies are contracted to send their employees to specific medical facilities when they're injured. As long as it's not an injury requiring emergency medical care, the employer sends the employee to someone within their Medical Provider Network (MPN), a group of preassigned health care professionals set up by the employers insurance company. If you are unhappy with the provider you are sent to, you can request another provider from the network. If the thought of going to an unknown provider is unsettling to you and you are already a current acupuncture patient, you can sign a form pre-designating your acupuncturist as your primary health care provider in case of a work related injury. To ensure you can use the acupuncturist as your workers compensation provider, your employer must offer group health coverage, you must have been to the acupuncturist before, the acupuncturist must have those medical records and, prior to the injury, you must have signed the letter of pre-designation.

Due to many medical providers abusing the workers compensation system, limitations have been put in place. No longer are medical providers granted unlimited treatments of patients. Chiropractics, physical therapists and occupational therapists have been limited to only 24 treatments. When using acupuncture, functional improvement is expected within 3-6 treatments, with the patient being treated 1-3 times a week. Typically, the expected duration of treatments is from 1-2 months, but treatments can be extended with documentation of continuing functional improvement.

Acupuncture can get employees back to work faster and can be done in conjunction with other healing modalities. If you're already using acupuncture for health care, make sure to fill out a pre-designation form allowing you to use your acupuncturist in case of a work related injury. Our goal is to get you feeling better as soon as possible, getting you back to work as soon as possible and enjoying life pain-free once again.