They call it the practice of medicine for a reason - you're never done learning, never done improving your technique or expanding your knowledge to best serve your patients. It's a lifelong thing.
The dailiness of practice continues to fill me with happiness and gratitude. I look around, at times, and wonder how in the world I could find myself in the middle of health journeys, actively participating in quests for improved strength, reduced pain, better sleep, conception, etc. The road here has been intense, the days now present endless opportunities for connection, for learning, for practicing this amazing medicine.
As we are more accepted within a Western model, we focus significant administrative efforts becoming credentialed with insurance companies, complying with ever shifting requirements (some solid, some not so solid). We have opted to accept insurance. Some clinics do not. There are arguments for both positions. The demographic in which I practice is not one that would be able to receive regular treatments if we only ran a cash practice, so we accept insurance. After all, we're here to treat as many as possible, not just those with the expendable income to seek acupuncture.
But the amount of time we spend ensuring we're doing it just right, we're charting exhaustively and completely, we're documenting every.single.action in clinic is a LOT, and at the end of some weeks, after we've decided to improve our charting (electronic) and include more documentation to support medical necessity of acupuncture for our patients I'm OVER it. And if the chat rooms and blogs and network of practitioners who practice across the US is to be believed, we are going to be under increasing scrutiny in the months and years to come as the Western world attempts to roll us into their fold. Apparently many have abused the system over the years, which places all of us in the spotlight, now.
Thank goodness there is a break each week, because holy smokes. What a PITA.
Anyway, one day we may shift our focus to be all cash, to provide facial rejuvenation and nutritional counseling and various services that improve lives but that aren't always covered by insurance.
But for now, we practice for the masses. And we create a record trail designed to provide more than required to prove we're assessing and measuring and reporting and doing our very best to practice this ancient, amazing medicine in a Western wrapper.
We're defending our medicine, our judgment, our practice at every turn. The trick is to do it well and understand that the time expended defending means we get a chance to serve up Oriental Medicine to a world very, very much in need of soothing and healing.
Warmly,
Stevie
The dailiness of practice continues to fill me with happiness and gratitude. I look around, at times, and wonder how in the world I could find myself in the middle of health journeys, actively participating in quests for improved strength, reduced pain, better sleep, conception, etc. The road here has been intense, the days now present endless opportunities for connection, for learning, for practicing this amazing medicine.
As we are more accepted within a Western model, we focus significant administrative efforts becoming credentialed with insurance companies, complying with ever shifting requirements (some solid, some not so solid). We have opted to accept insurance. Some clinics do not. There are arguments for both positions. The demographic in which I practice is not one that would be able to receive regular treatments if we only ran a cash practice, so we accept insurance. After all, we're here to treat as many as possible, not just those with the expendable income to seek acupuncture.
But the amount of time we spend ensuring we're doing it just right, we're charting exhaustively and completely, we're documenting every.single.action in clinic is a LOT, and at the end of some weeks, after we've decided to improve our charting (electronic) and include more documentation to support medical necessity of acupuncture for our patients I'm OVER it. And if the chat rooms and blogs and network of practitioners who practice across the US is to be believed, we are going to be under increasing scrutiny in the months and years to come as the Western world attempts to roll us into their fold. Apparently many have abused the system over the years, which places all of us in the spotlight, now.
Thank goodness there is a break each week, because holy smokes. What a PITA.
Anyway, one day we may shift our focus to be all cash, to provide facial rejuvenation and nutritional counseling and various services that improve lives but that aren't always covered by insurance.
But for now, we practice for the masses. And we create a record trail designed to provide more than required to prove we're assessing and measuring and reporting and doing our very best to practice this ancient, amazing medicine in a Western wrapper.
We're defending our medicine, our judgment, our practice at every turn. The trick is to do it well and understand that the time expended defending means we get a chance to serve up Oriental Medicine to a world very, very much in need of soothing and healing.
Warmly,
Stevie
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