Billing for perioperative acupuncture: current practices and future directions.

Abstract

Perioperative acupuncture has been shown to reduce anxiety, as well as mitigate perioperative nausea.1 The addition of intra-operative acupuncture has been shown to help with post-operative pain control in total knee and anterior cruciate ligament replacements.2,3 One barrier to increasing access to perioperative acupuncture services is the lack of clear, widely applicable billing practices and guidelines. Establishing the ability to show an additional revenue stream could increase institutional support for perioperative integrative medicine programs. In this letter, we will review current billing practices for perioperative acupuncture and explore existing economic barriers to increased access for perioperative acupuncture services. Current billing practices (outpatient acupuncture)