Office Policies
Patient Appointments
Appointments are scheduled on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Afternoon and evening appointments are available on these four days. At this time, no morning appointments are possible.
We are very careful to keep on schedule, so we strongly suggest you plan to arrive 10 to 15 minutes early for your appointment. Arriving early allows you to rest a few minutes and allow your pulses to calm for the visit. When a patient rushes to make an appointment, or is annoyed by traffic or weather delays, it disturbs the qi and pulse.
We want you to benefit fully from a complete treatment session, and this is another reason to come a little early. In order to be fair to other patients, we do not extend your treatment into another patient's appointment if you arrive late.
On the other hand, if you arrive at least 15 minutes early, you are also eligible for our "no-waiting" guarantee:
If your appointment is delayed by more than 15 minutes for any reason, your appointment charge will be reduced by half. If we have to reschedule your appointment and do not provide you at least 24 hours notice, your next appointment will be free of charge.
No other practice in the United States is organized well enough to offer this type of assurance. Your appointment time is important to us, and we recognize that your time is valuable and should not be wasted by doctors and institutions who think you have nothing better to do than wait around for their convenience.
Fees
We recommend a 50 minute initial evaluation. This allows for a focused examination as well as a fairly complete review of the information that you sent in before the first visit.
You can communicate your concerns and priorities in an unhurried manner, and options for treatment can be examined and discussed.
Occasionally, a comprehensive plan for treatment cannot be established in this first visit, especially in complex or chronic disorders when medical records must be obtained or laboratory work ordered. Nonetheless, considerable progress can often be made to establish a strategy for workup or treatment during this first consultation.
The intial evaluation charge is $185.00
Medical visits are scheduled as regular visits or extended visits.
Extended visits are required when acupuncture, moxabustion or other procedures are to be applied, whereas regular visits will generally be scheduled for acute problems and interval management of chronic disorders.
Regular visits may involve advice on dietary or plant medicinal or pharmaceutical based treatments, exercise and rehabilitative guidance, preventative medicine, as well as management of many other types of disorder that do not require extensive procedures or treatments.
The regular visit charge is $50.00 and the extended visit charge is $95.00.
Treatments for Smoking Cessation
The initial treatment for smoking cessation takes about 40 to 50 minutes and is $150.00. An optional ear needle can be placed at this treatment, if you desire. Many people have found these to be useful.
One treatment is usually sufficient. Follow up treatments, if necessary, take about 25 minutes and the charge for these is $90.00.
Payment Policy
Payment is expected in full at the time of each visit by cash, check, or credit card. There is a discount for cash payment, in keeping with our fee-for-service philosophy. The prices listed above reflect this cash discount.
No billing or payment plans are accepted. We do not accept assignment from Government programs or insurance companies.
Presently, Medicare and Medicaid do not pay for acupuncture or traditional Oriental medicine. Participants in these programs must agree to be responsible for all fees in accordance with Federal regulations. Workman's compensation will sometimes reimburse patients for their treatments, with prior approval by the agency.
If you have a Medical Savings Account (MSA), Health Savings Account (HSA), or a Medicare Medical Savings Account, you will be able to use these funds for evaluations, office visits, acupuncture treatments, and prescribed dietary supplements.
Coordination with Other Practitioners
Even though many conditions can be treated through a consulting practice such as Acupuncture Associates, often people have prior associations with several different physicians and practitioners. We believe it is best for all medical care to be coordinated, so we encourage patients to communicate the plan of care between physicians.
We will be happy to discuss your treatment or our suggestions with any of your specialists.
Cancellation Policy
In order to provide concierge-level service at fee for service prices, we require that patients demonstrate a greater level of responsiblity for the time they reserve than most practices generally expect.
Patients who are truly interested and determined to make the necessary changes to improve their health will benefit the most from this model of practice.
If you cannot make an appointment, please notify us as soon as possible. Recording machines are available 24 hours a day. We ask that you provide 48 hours notice of a change or cancellation of an appointment.
Visits will be charged if they are missed and not cancelled, or are cancelled less than 48 hours before the appointment. These fees reflect the value of the time reserved when an appointment is scheduled as well as the costs of providing the on time, efficient and focused clinical experience that we provide.
We understand that there are unavoidable emergencies and inconveniences in everyone's life, but repeated problems keeping appointments will result in dismissal from the practice. Patients may also be dismissed if they are unwilling to make a significant effort to improve destructive habits and participate in the therapeutic relationship.
Telephone Policy
For established patients, there is no charge for telephone consultations of up to ten minutes. Consultations of over ten minutes are charged at the rate of $40.00 per fifteen-minute interval.
Without special encryption and unusual security protocols, email cannot be kept private and secure. We do not recommend patients use email for communication of private medical information at this time.