Is Chiropractic Care Covered Under My Health Insurance?
Category: Spine Pain | Author: Stefano Sinicropi
We’re getting towards the end of the year, and that means it’s time for many people to pick a health insurance plan for the upcoming year. If you have been dealing with back pain, you may be looking at insurance plans and seeing if certain specialty services are covered under your plan. One such treatment specialty that we’re often asked about is chiropractic care. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at whether or not chiropractic care is covered by health insurance, and how to best overcome lingering spinal pain.
Will Insurance Pay For My Chiropractor?
Whenever we talk about insurance, it’s important to remember that it’s best to get individualized answers from your health insurer based on your specific plan and coverage. With that being said, here’s some general information about chiropractic care and insurance coverage.
Chiropractic care for back or neck injuries is included in most major health insurance plans, like Medicare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare and more. However, you can’t just show up with a back injury and receive free treatment from a chiropractor simply because you have health insurance. For starters, most plans require a copay for chiropractic services, and this amount will vary based on your plan. Also, since insurance plans don’t just want you indefinitely receiving chiropractic services, they typically have other requirements in order for your treatment to be covered. Those requirements typically include some or all of the following:
- A recommendation from a primary care physician or spine specialist that chiropractic care is a medical necessity.
- Receiving care from an approved list of chiropractors.
- The development of an active care plan that involves other modalities and an expected recovery timeline.
It’s also possible that the insurance company will put a cap on how many times you can visit a chiropractor in a given year or for one specific injury. For example, they may approve weekly sessions for 12 weeks, but anything that progresses beyond this point may not be covered by insurance. Again, this depends on your specific plan and the recovery you’ve made so far.
So while you can take solace in knowing that your chiropractic care is likely partially covered by insurance, know that there will still be plenty of requirements to meet, and you likely won’t be able to see them indefinitely. Also, because you’ll typically need a referral, you’ll want to head to a doctor’s office first to ensure that chiropractic care is actually your best option. While there’s a chance it could be helpful as part of a comprehensive back pain treatment plan, if you visit a spine specialist, they may be able to set you up with more active treatments that will yield better results.
Contact a Minnesota Spine Doctor
Our goal is to help you find the quickest and strongest recovery after a back injury, and that doesn’t always involve a heavy dose of passive treatments like chiropractic care. Oftentimes you’ll be better off with a heavier dose of exercise, physical therapy or targeted strength training exercises. Rarely do passive treatments provide total relief, so know that you’ll need to put in some work on your end in order to achieve the best results. So if you’d like to figure out the best way to attack your back pain, and to see if a chiropractic referral would be beneficial, sync up with a spine specialist like Dr. Sinicropi and the team at the Midwest Spine & Brain Institute today.
