Insurance

Legislative Sessions 2023-2024

The ASM continues to help push two important bills through the house and senate. The bills are critical to the acupuncture profession, for practitioners and patients. One is the acupuncture insurance bill below and the other related to Dry Needling.

What It is: An Act Relative to the Practice of Acupuncture 

H 1120 & S 722 (has house and senate versions of the bill)

What It Does:  This legislation would ensure that all providers providing pain treatment with acupuncture needles are properly trained, vetted, regulated and licensed and will require licensed health care providers to have adequate training and independent testing and continuing education to validate and maintain their skills, protecting consumers in the Commonwealth.  

Representative Smitty Pignatelli has been our stalwart champion for a long time now.  He’s well positioned with leadership to help us get past the House Ways and Means where we ended up last session. Senator John Velis is a new champion for us, but he brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm and he’s deeply committed to issues related to mitigating the opioid crisis and also is very involved in policies relating to veterans. He will be an asset to our efforts.

Why the ASM co-authored and supports this bill: Providing access to safe and quality treatment is always a key goal. We continue to get decision makers in the state legislature to advance policies to extend access to those who need it.

Learn More
H 1120 –  read the bill & see updates on Mass.gov view
S 722 – read the bill & see updates on Mass.gov  view
ASM Insurance Bill Fact Sheet (PDF Download) Coming Soon

Legislative Sessions 2021-2022

Previous Acupuncture/Insurance Bill

What It Is: An Act Relative to the Practice of Acupuncture HD1179 & S1458 (has both house and senate versions)

What It Does:

• Mandates insurance coverage for acupuncture in MA for the treatment of pain, nausea, PTSD, and to treat opioid addiction
• Establishes a commission on acupuncture and wellness within the public health department
• Covers state employees (about 200,000 people) 

Learn More
HD1179 text
S1458 text
ASM Insurance Bill Fact Sheet (PDF Download)

Members of the ASM at the Statehouse

Related research findings

• Acupuncture Fact Sheet
• Mandated Benefit Review of Bill 3972: An Act Relative to the Practice of Acupuncture – Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA), April 2015 http://www.chiamass.gov/assets/Uploads/MBR-H3972-Acupuncture.pdf
• Acupuncture for chronic pain: an update and critical overview Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology published ahead of print July 2017.
• Summary of Research on Insurance Coverage of Acupuncture and Complementary Medicine from Washington state and NY – Carol Krieger, RN, BSN, Lic.Ac., MAOM
• Evaluating the Cost Effectiveness and ROI of Acupuncture – Deborah Farley, L.Ac., CHHC
• Florida Medicare Study: Cost Savings with Acupuncture for Chronic Pain – Health Management Associates