Acupuncture after your Auto Accident
Auto/ Personal Injury Basics
As you probably know, Minnesota has no-fault/PIP, i.e. Personal Injury Protection. That means that you do not have to pay for medical care after an auto/personal injury no matter who was at fault for the accident. Your car insurance pays, they may seek reimbursement from other parties on your behalf. In addition, your auto insurance premium will not go up additionally when you add a medical claim to an existing accident claim. The accident may cause the premium to rise if you were at fault and you do not have accident forgiveness, but it will not reflect the medical claim.
Also to keep in mind1
- You can choose your provider(s). You can see whomever you wish without a referral or asking your auto insurance company. Simply open a medical claim and relay that number to me to allow me to bill your auto insurance.
- If you have a pre-existing condition: So long as the new injury from the motor vehicle accident is one cause of the need for treatment, no-fault from this most recent accident will pay for 100% of the cost of treatment.
- A person who misses some time from work directly from the injury or in order to obtain medical treatment will be eligible for no fault benefits if the person loses income, sick leave or accumulated vacation. This claim includes both time lost for treatment and time for reasonable travel to and from treatment.
- Interpreting and translation services
- Cost of transportation to and from treatment
- Per law, you have $20,000 limit on medical care and $20,000 in non-medical reimbursement. In actuality, the limit is much lower based on the cost of services the insurance company deems “medically necessary”.
- After $4000 of medical claims, you may be eligible for reimbursement of “pain and suffering”.
Acupuncture for Personal Injury Basics
Effective– Since most of my new patients do not know acupuncture from a hole in the ground, let me start by celebrating this wonderful, effective medicine (briefly)! Bottom line is that you want to get better- totally better. Acupuncture has been shown in clinical experiments published in major medical journals to benefit acute and chronic back pain, neck pain, many joint pains, paresthesias, and a host of other disorders. Refer to my biography, patient testimonials, and physician testimonials to see how I have personally embraced my field and helped people like you in the past.
A Unique medicine for your unique problems– Acupuncture stimulates the best medicine on the planet- your body’s own regulatory system. After over a decade of practice, I have discovered that acupuncture also has an important niche unfilled by chiropractic, injection, drugs, or physical therapy. Not just for pain, acupuncture rebalances specific muscles and nerves to benefit posture and take stress away from vulnerable areas. Bones go where muscles tell them to. Acupuncture needles inserted into particular areas of the muscle change mobility and strength immediately. This is the hallmark of Sports Medicine Acupuncture, the most effective acupuncture approach I have come across in my career. I will demonstrate this to you with astounding effects during your first treatment!
Afraid of needles? You can fit 30 acupuncture needles into one of those honking hypodermics used for injections. Acupuncture needles are the width of human hair. This is like nothing you have tried before and nothing like an injection. Furthermore, I can adjust treatment to suit your comfort level and still be effective.
Extremely safe– By working WITH your body, treatments normally have little to no side effects, will not worsen your condition or complicate your presentation with drugs, surgery or ill-advised manipulation. See our incredible safety record here.
Integrity– I have seen too many patients run out of medical benefits before full recovery from injury to not include this section. But, follow these simple rules and you should be ok.
1. Do not begin treatment with anyone without a benchmarked timeline. If they say you’ll feel x amount better after x amount of weeks and you do not, stop seeing them, or add care from another source. We always go over this during the evaluation and re-evaluation every 5-7 visits. I hate to hear about patients that were treated for months without long term benefit.
2. Ask what services your provider offers up front. If they include a lot of fancy machinery, you can be sure the insurance will be billed heavily for it and drain your benefits as a result. I provide the following services: acupuncture, e-stim (like a tens unit), manual therapy (massage), stretching, gua sha, cupping, moxibustion, exercise therapy, qi gong and dietary and lifestyle recommendations as needed.
3. Beware of medical providers that mainly do auto/personal injury. These providers are expert billers and salesmen, not necessarily effective caregivers. These “bill mills” are the cause of the majority of patient dissatisfaction in my experience and a drain on the state. I focus on Sports Medicine Acupuncture, Cancer Support and Chinese Internal Medicine. My Sports Medicine background makes me uniquely qualified to rehabilitate you to full functionality, just like my athletes.
Bibiliography
1. HAUER, FARGIONE, LOVE, LANDY, McELLISTREM & RORVIG, P.A. No Fault Benefits: An Overview. http://hauerfargione.com/sites/default/files/no_fault_2012_revisions_-_final.pdf
(Modern Point has no affiliation with this law firm)