Q: How much should I pay on the sliding scale?
A: You decide what you can afford, no questions asked. We don’t have income guidelines or ask for any verification. All of our patients pay based on what they feel is affordable for them. The purpose of the sliding scale is to make sure you can get enough acupuncture to get results. We want you to feel better and then tell everybody you know that acupuncture works!
Sometimes people think that the “appropriate” payment amount is somewhere in the middle of the scale. That’s not how it works here. The appropriate amount is the amount that will allow you to get enough acupuncture for it to work for you. If you can afford to pay more, thank you very much. But if you can’t, no problem. No one will be offended or hurt by you paying on the lower end. It’s not like tipping at a restaurant!
Q: Does the amount I pay change the quality of time, attention, or needles I receive?
A: No. One of our main goals is to give all patients the same care no matter who they are, where they come from, or their economic status. You do not get a longer rest time, more needles, or preferential treatment of any kind if you are paying at the higher end of the sliding scale. Plus, your acupuncturist isn’t usually involved in the payment transaction so they don’t even know how much you are paying while treating you.
Q: Do I have to pay the same amount each time I come in?
A: No. We know that personal finances eb and flow and that payment amounts will reflect this. We also know that the amount of acupuncture you may need for a particular issue changes over time. If you are in a space where you need to pay less in the sliding scale to get the frequency of acupuncture needed to work on a particular problem, great. Please don’t try to pay us too much and then not come in often enough. We would rather you come in more often, pay less, and see better results – really and truly!
Q: Should I discuss how much I am paying with my acupuncturist?
A: No. Discussions about personal finances are not necessary or encouraged.
Q: Should I tip?
A: Tipping is not compulsory. All of our acupuncturists are employees, not self-employed independent contractors and tips are not expected or encouraged. If you enjoy your experience, please tell your friends because word of mouth referrals are what keep us open. You can also always pay on the higher end of the sliding scale if you want to monetarily show your gratitude and are able to.
Q: Do you accept insurance?
A: No. We are not in-network with any insurance providers and do not bill insurance directly, but if you have out-of-network health insurance that pays for acupuncture, we can provide a “superbill” twice a year. For more information on this please Click Here and scroll down to the insurance section. For more information on HSA / FSA accounts Click Here.
Q: Are you a non-profit?
A: NOAP. We are an S-Corp, but one that has in its mission, being a social business, which means, if you’ve read, Nobel Prize Winner, Muhammad Yunus’s book on the subject, that we have an extra bottom line to our accounting measuring our social impact. Our mission is to lift our communities (of all three clinics) through acupuncture and provide meaningful, viable, fair employment to the staff that holds it all together.
Q: How are you able to offer such low prices?
A: Volume. When we are treating 5 or 6 people an hour, we are generating enough revenue. When we dip below that, things aren’t quite as lucrative. This is all made possible by you coming to acupuncture frequently and telling all your friends and family how great we are!
Q: Are you funded by the government?
A: No. Thank goodness. Can you imagine?! Actually, we can. We support a shift to socialized medicine, but until that happens we are happy to remain on the periphery of the broken health care system. We want to align ourselves with organizations who share similar values around expanding access to acupuncture and making health care a human right.