Why Doesn’t Harriott Chiropractic Accept Insurance?
Medicare Guidelines Section 2251.3:
“A treatment plan that seeks to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong and enhance the quality of life; or therapy that is performed to maintain or prevent the deterioration of a chronic condition is deemed
NOT MEDICALLY NECESSARY”.
With every Chiropractic treatment plan Dr. Harriott develops, he seeks to “prevent disease, promote health, and prolong and enhance the quality of life”. In addition, every therapy Dr. Harriott delivers (beyond the Chiropractic adjustment) is “performed to maintain or prevent the deterioration of a chronic condition”.
The hurdles that Dr. Harriott has strived to overcome in order to minimize the cost and increase the convenience of preventive wellness and maintenance Chiropractic care are largely a result of this and other barriers imposed by the “powers-that-be” in the in the US healthcare industry: namely the American Medical Association, the Insurance Industry and Medicare. Regardless of his best intentions, the bottom line is that a chiropractor who provides medically necessary “billable” care to some patients while providing wellness or maintenance care to others is playing in a legal and/or ethical minefield. I didn’t go from engineering to chiropractic in order to practice law. I just want to help whenever and wherever I can. So I don’t collect from any 3rd party payors.
The industry Goliaths generally go to the legislated Medicare Act in order to restrict payments and exert control over the delivery of Chiropractic care. While Medicare has always restricted reimbursement to “covered” Chiropractic adjustments only, Congress further restricted the reimbursable care to only adjustments delivered as part of “medically necessary” care. The Insurance industry relies heavily on this “medical necessity” rule to avoid responsibility for paying out for Chiropractic care claims wherever possible. And the AMA, which has historically resorted to illegal boycotts to shutdown Chiropractic competition was only too happy to support this since this rule would limit access and assure that patients would not enjoy the benefit of lifetime Chiropractic care.
So, I will provide you with the superbill you need to submit for insurance reimbursement. And soon, I will even submit bills electronically to your insurer on your behalf. But I will not play the insurance game. I will be paid at the time of service and I will only respond to information requests from my patients.
