The Loop
By Chia Chia Cheng, L.Ac.
Have you met your deductible this year? Have you used all your acupuncture benefits to date? If not, there’s one more month left to use your benefits and feel relaxed during the most stressful time of the season.
If you don’t use your 2019 benefits, you’ll lose it. The year 2020 rings in new possibilities and a deductible for you to meet. Some insurance plans have maximum allowed visits or maximum dollar amount for benefits per calendar.
For Kaiser (not CHP) members who obtained a referral for acupuncture in 2019, here’s what happens. Whatever visits remaining out of the 12 you were given, those carry to 2020. However, your maximum benefit for 2020 is still 12 acupuncture visits. Meaning if you have used 5 out of the 12 visits for this year, next year you have the remaining 7 visits available to you until the expiration date of the referral. You have 5 visits left for 2020.
Maybe you want to “save” your benefits in case you need them later. You have too much shopping to do from now until Christmas. There’s no time for acupuncture! You’ll wait to see how you do in January.
I know the drill. After nearly 25 years of practice, I’ve seen how this goes down.
The holiday crazy goes on for 4-6 weeks. By the time the tinsel dust settles, the bills start coming in. You start to prioritize paying off your credit card balances. You decide you will wait until the FSA has a sizable balance or until you meet your deductible. By the time you’re ready in late February to give acupuncture a try, you’re in chronic pain and can’t get an appointment soon enough with your primary doctor. Either for a referral or for muscle relaxers.
From now until Christmas you’re going to be busier than the busy you were already living for the past 10 months. Your body’s sensitivity to pain increases with stress and feeling tired. You know your body. Maybe this has happened to you before.
An ounce of prevention now may help you avoid a pound of treatment later. Make the time to take care of yourself while you’re taking care of everyone else. Prioritize feeling good in your mind and body as you welcome the new year. Don’t wait until 2020 to choose health and wellbeing. Choose health and wellness now!
It’s close to the end of the year. Open enrollment ends on December 15, 2019. Have you chosen your insurance plan for next year? If not, you still have time. And you still have time to use the remainder of your benefits.
You also have time to use those acupuncture benefits before they expire. Acupuncture will help you feel better. When you feel better, you do better.
When people are driving you nuts, or you find yourself overwhelmed by your physical and emotional state, recite these lines either out load or in your head. You don’t need to get sucked into the holiday chaos. You can do something to help yourself feel better.
