What Happens When a Health Plan Has No Limits? An Acupuncturist Earns $677 a Session.

[TexasTowelie]

Judging by the marketing, it would seem that the teachers of New Jersey have collectively thrown out their backs, pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve while engaged in rigorous educating.

Last fall, when teachers at about a dozen New Jersey schools returned from break, employees from Thompson Healthcare & Sports Medicine welcomed them with bagels and orange juice. The clinic’s owner also created an empathetic YouTube video titled “We Understand Painful Conditions Suffered By Teachers.”

NJ Spine and Wellness offered catered lunches, chairside massages and prizes at “Teacher Wellness Days.” “Want us to come to your school?” the chiropractic business asks educators in an online ad.

Other acupuncturists, chiropractors and physical therapists have donated cash, supplies and even wheelchairs to local schools and districts. On social media, some dangle the promise of a stress-relieving rubdown. “Contact our office about medical massage included as part of our chiropractic services,” says one post.

Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/what-happens-when-a-health-plan-for-teachers-has-no-limits-an-acupuncturist-earns-677-a-session

[Faux pas]

1. Yikes!

My acupuncturist charges $125, I pay $15 and the treatment lasts at least an hour.

[Beakybird]

2. My acupuncturist just pins me on Instagram.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. I got a feeling that this health plan won't be around for very much longer...nt

[Disaffected]

4. That should

poke a hole in their fee schedule.

[bitterross]

5. "...acupuncturists were paid an average of $377..." Click-bait Title by ProPublica.

Seems the person who wrote the title didn't read the article very carefully. The author of article isn't always the person who puts the title on the article.

I have no idea what an acupuncturist normally charges. $377 for an office visit to any kind of professional these days doesn't seem too out of the ordinary though. Well, it's absurd, but no more so than a visit to any type of medical or medical-related practitioner beyond a GP.

I don't understand how this got to this place to begin with. Most insurance pays the UCR - usual, customary and reasonable. If they don't have that clause in their plans I'm very surprised. If they're not enforcing that, it's on them.

[TexasTowelie]

6. To a certain extent, almost every title that is on the Internet can be considered to be

clickbait. And I agree, the person creating the title may not be the author of the article.

You may have overlooked it, but the article says, "The state paid Thompson Healthcare & Sports Medicine" so there wasn't even an insurance company paying the fees for the acupuncture services.

The article also says, "ProPublica has been detailing the hidden forces — side deals, unchecked fraud, lazy regulators and greedy providers and insurers — that make Americans’ health benefits so expensive." Later in the article we see this statement, "The state panel overseeing the benefit plan, made up of six people, half of whom are union members, has done nothing to stop the runaway costs."

If anything, the article reaches the conclusion that there are other people involved in the process of the overpayments. It also validates the question in the headline to the article which is, "What Happens When a Health Plan Has No Limits?"