In 2026 for acupuncture, I’m pretty darn excited because of the changes to relative value units. Relative value units are set up each year to give the cost of a service compared to any other, and that value changes the amount of revenue because there’s a standard conversion they multiply by, and when that number goes up, you get an increase in revenue.
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Greetings, friends and colleagues. This is Samuel Collins, the coding and billing expert for acupuncture, the American Acupuncture Council, and maybe more importantly, the profession. And you, as I warned you last month, there is gonna be changes. And of course there are. Let’s go to the slides and talk about what is coming, or frankly, what is here for the new year.
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In 2026 for acupuncture, I’m pretty darn excited because of the changes to relative value units. Relative value units are set up each year to give the cost of a service compared to any other, and that value changes the amount of revenue because there’s a standard conversion they multiply by, and when that number goes up, you get an increase in revenue.
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So this is applied by Medicare, the va. Workers’ comp, personal injury, and frankly, health insurance. Maybe not all health insurance. Let’s face it. If you’re dealing with a SH or some of these, they’re probably not using rvu. They’re just trying to set a fee. But the bottom line is we use RVU to help us convert.
So let’s talk about what has changed in 2026. Here’s a big list of it, and of course you’re gonna look, this has a little bit of everything. This is something you get in our seminars where we give you the whole detail and go through that. But I wanted you to at least see, what the RVU are for this year.
Where they have changed and in fact to see that better. Let’s really talk about for acupuncture, you’ll notice 9 7, 8 1 0 is now 1.44 conversion. That is literally a 4% increase. You’ll notice 9, 7, 8, 1 1. Now at 0.85 is a 7% increase, so therefore there’s been a nice change. Acupuncturists are really fortunate.
Do you know you’re the only profession that’s got this much of a raise in the last three years. You got about 8% two years ago, another 4% this year That’s doing good, but you only get an increase. If you increase the fee, think of it like owning a home. If your home increases in value 10% and you’re gonna go sell it, you’re not gonna sell it at the value it was before.
So I want everyone to start thinking, how do I use this? So let’s say by example this year, just with a 4% increase. That would mean if you’re charging $78, now I use $78 because that’s gonna be roughly the 4% increase based on a $70 if you will. And you can see here that 4% increase means if you’re charging 78 for the first set, additional sets are 46.
Wow. That’s a nice big difference. Think about that for a second. A VA patient, a Medicare patient. Now you’re looking at probably $170. Maybe not that high, 160 something per visit. That’s quite a bit more than it was. Notice the big jump up though for e and m codes, you’ll notice e and m codes here increased 4%.
They went from 3.37. To three point five, two. Big jump. Most of all of you are undervaluing. Now, you may look and go, but Sam, we had a decrease in the massage rate. Yeah. Body work did go down, but I want you to know the reason it went down. They kept everything else flat. Even though they raised rates on some codes or values, they increased the revenue value by 3.2.
So the conversion they have is 3.2 higher. So that’s a much bigger difference for acupuncture and e and m. And it’s about flat for the massage part. So for the most part, maybe some of those fees will stay the same. But if you’re not increasing your fees a bit, it’s gonna be a problem because every state uses a multiplier and here’s some.
Real prominent examples. Michigan, Florida, Indiana use 200% of Medicare. So you just go back, you just take this rate, 200%, you’re gonna go. Wow. Sam, are you saying 200% means 150? That’s what they would allow. Now, I’m not saying you should charge that much, let don’t get me wrong. I don’t necessarily say that, but would that be within reason?
Potentially. So notice in other states, like California, it’s 150%, or in other states you simply do a number 69, 49, realize the Medicare conversion is about $35. You can see all of these are well above that as a good rule of thumb. Probably 1.5 to two of your Medicare rate, though that may vary ’cause your practice may be dependent upon cash and how do you balance the cash discount.
What I’m highlighting though, is you better start to get online to make sure you’re not undervaluing network members with me, my platinum members. Please reach out. We need to get in a meeting in a Zoom and go through these in detail to know what’s good for your area. ’cause I will guarantee most are losing money.
And this doesn’t just include acupuncture, but exams and some therapies as well, we will do for non-members. I have a seminar coming up January 18th or 25th, east Coast, west Coast. Let’s go through this because the revenue lost by most acupuncturists by not understanding what something is worth is a tremendous crime to your practice.
If you’re billing someone 50 and they’re willing to pay you 75, you know what they’re gonna pay you. 50. Now, I’m not saying you have to charge 75, but shouldn’t it make sense that you should charge what the value is? Relative values bring you there. I’m hoping for all of you, you start to realize that you need to look at this as a business part and not just, it’s the same year after year.
Costs go up as a general rule. Fee should increase about 3% every year just based on cost of living. And sometimes if you haven’t increased it in five years. Maybe you need to do a little bit more. Now remember, this could be indifferent to your cash part of your practice, depending, particularly if you’re doing packages.
So realize you wanna start to really fortify your practice. We’re here to help because notice Medicare increased rates 3.26% just based on that, if they increased. The value by 4%, then increase the conversion by 3%. That’s a pretty big difference that you may not be aware of. And this is gonna be just off of standard Medicare rates, which by no means would anyone say that’s the highest.
So get in line. I hope that you come part to the seminar, particularly for members. Remember platinum members, it’s free for you. Just call in and sign up. Otherwise, everyone else would love to see. And I wanna make sure, is your practice thriving? I have an incentive for you. Your practice is important to us at the American Acupuncture Council.
If your practice is not increasing, we don’t have a business either because we support you. We wanna make sure you understand the business side and acupuncturists, you’re good at your acupuncture, but have you really looked at the business side, allow us to have a chance to help you, seminars our network.
Hope to see you all soon Until next month, however, take care.