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Acupuncture for Veterans (instructions for patients)

Did you know any of our military veterans can receive acupuncture treatments as part of their veteran benefits package? Evergreen Medical Acupuncture has been an in-network Community-Care Acupuncture Provider for the VA since 2021. This program is run through the Veteran Health Administration and is its newest offering to military members and veterans since 2018. The Denver VA offers walk-in Battlefield Acupuncture at the main VA hospital in Aurora, and comprehensive acupuncture at one of several Community-Based Outreach Clinics (CBOCs)—Golden and Aurora locations included—or at an outpatient private practice for acupuncturists enrolled in their network. Unfortunately, the wait time for a new patient to be seen at many VA Community Care Clinics is over a month. However, in 2018, the VA also implemented the Mission Act, which stipulates criteria allowing vets to be seen sooner in the community. If the wait to be seen is longer than 28-days, or if the vet has to drive more than 60 minutes one way to get to their VA clinic, they can refer the veteran to a clinic like ours to be seen sooner. Evergreen Medical Acupuncture is one of the only VA providers in the foothills. We see vets in both our Evergreen and Conifer locations and service military members from Idaho Springs to Fairplay and beyond.

For a veteran to receive their acupuncture benefits they need a referral. Oftentimes, with a referral, many veterans pay nothing at all out of pocket. Occasionally, they have to pay a copay for their visit, depending on their insurance coverage. They must go to their VA primary care provider and request a referral for acupuncture for an evaluated condition. Most conditions we see approved are for any type of pain condition which can be acute or chronic, as well as PTSD, insomnia, and other complaints such as digestive issues or headaches. Pain conditions are the easiest to get a referral for and get additional authorizations for more treatments because we can more easily classify how well, objectively, acupuncture is working for them. Initially, the veteran is granted 12 sessions to use in two months. This is where we work together to get the patient better and show the proven results to the VA so they can grant a reauthorization for more visits. That second authorization tends to be another eight acupuncture treatments to be used in three months (this is called a continuation of care authorization). If we again can objectively show improvement, the patient can get another eight visits to use in six more months (this is classified as chronic care reauthorization).

One thing to keep in mind is once the veteran receives that initial authorization for visits, they have to be seen by us within three months. So if you know you can't commit to six treatments per month, it is best to strategically plan when you will ask for your referral. Patients don't get punished for going out of town or not using all their visits, but the VA does take into consideration how frequent and committed you are to getting better before they give another authorization. This can be a tricky balance sometimes.

Now, if a veteran gets referred to us for, let's say, low back pain, we can still treat other conditions that can affect their chief complaint. If their sleep is affected by their pain, we can treat their sleep as well. The beautiful thing about acupuncture is we view the body as being very connected. The VA doesn't put any parameters on what we can or cannot treat as long as our main objective is to help the patient with their chief complaint listed in their referral. During these acupuncture sessions we can also do acupuncture with electrical stimulation or without, and we can add other auxiliary treatments such as cupping and manual therapy. We have seen amazing outcomes for some of our veteran patients. These benefits have included a sizable reduction in pain such as low back pain, neck pain, hip pain, shoulder pain or headaches. Acupuncture has been shown to decrease patients' dependence on pain medication including opioid usage, and reduce the number of higher risk invasive procedures. In 2017, the American College of Physicians came out with an updated practice guide stating that acupuncture should be recommended as a first-time therapy for acute and chronic nonarticular low back pain.1 We have also seen many veterans with mental health conditions such as PTSD improve greatly with acupuncture.

Evergreen Medical Acupuncture strives to offer our foothills community with not only some of the nation's top doctors of acupuncture and Chinese medicine, but we also try to offer as many appointment times and location availability. We have seen our patients in Bailey and beyond, in particular, struggle the most with drive times to be seen for their visits. We have been able to offer acupuncture for veterans in our Conifer location for ease of access to them, as well as our other patients through Medicare and regular insurance.

We run into more and more veterans who don't even know about these amazing benefits. Get the word out, and tell your friends who are veterans that they can get amazing acupuncture benefits. This is our small service to them for their service to us.

1 bit.ly/3AuEnDm

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Friday, 04 April 2025