Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi, my name is Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture educator and author, and today I would like to thank the. American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity to speak to you today about submuscular needling of the face. So I last year I published a book, hardcover book on treating the Face, and it is a comprehensive 500 page book and one of the chapters of the book.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
Is all about submuscular needling. So some of the images that, or most of the images we’ll be working with today come from my book. So go ahead and go to the first slide please. So what is Submuscular needling of the face and why would we use it? Submuscular needling. Involves taking acupuncture needles and placing them underneath, or in some instances through different muscles on the face and the head, and even around the underneath the chin area.
In order to help the face to function better, and in some instances we can use this same technique to help with wrinkles on the face and sagging and. Essentially what we’re doing is we’re taking needles and putting them in areas that are prone to muscular disharmony and can, this can be very beneficial for things like Bell’s Palsy.
And if someone has had a stroke or forehead, wrinkles sagging under the neck. So muscles like the corrugator and the frontals can help the forehead area. The processis, also the temporalis can help with migraines. Tinnitus other neuromuscular conditions of the face, the masseter can help with things like TMJ.
The auricular muscles can help also with tinnitus and helping to lift the face, and one that’s not listed. The anterior digastric can help with sagging under the chin area. So here’s a couple of images from my book of muscles on the face. And as you can see, there are quite a few. Some of them are superficial, some of them are deep.
And these are the images of the muscles on the side of the face and head. And so first we’re gonna talk a little bit. About muscles involved in raising the eyebrows and the eyelids bringing the eyebrows together from a cosmetic standpoint, these three muscles can cause wrinkles and deep furrows between the eyebrows from a neuro and a wrinkle across the bridge of the nose.
From a neuromuscular standpoint, these. Muscles can be involved with like for example, if someone has Bell’s palsy and the upper part of their face is drooping, and what we would do is insert needles. Doesn’t really matter when you’re doing submuscular needling, which direction you go, but you would take a half inch needle and insert them.
Underneath the muscles. So this right here these muscles right here are the corrugator muscles. And this will help to, and the corrugator inserts right into the braceis here and. This helps to bring chi and blood to this area. And also if there’s any fossil adhesions, it can help to break those up.
And by doing that, it helps to nourish the muscle, to bring the muscle into better functioning. This, these can be combined with facial motor points, which is another lecture, another chapter in the book. And to help so that there’s more symmetry in the face and also less drooping and fewer wrinkles, and this is what it looks like when you would do that.
And I have a little video. I need to move this over so I can click on it.
So as you can see in the video, I took a very thin gauge. I used cen needles. They’re like half inch. I think those are 0.1 fours. And I went right underneath the corrugator muscle. And you can just use one from the top if you choose. But in that example I was using too, so the frontals is another muscle.
So there’s two heads to the frontalis, and that is another muscle that we can do submuscular needling with. So we would put several needles underneath the frontalis muscle and it would look something like this. This can help with droopy eyelids. And also with forehead wrinkles. I’m going to skip the videos.
This is just a brief summary of what Submuscular Needling is. If you want more information, you can either visit. My book, which you can get@facialacupunctureclasses.com, or you can watch one of my recorded webinars at the same website, facial acupuncture classes.com. This is the braceis muscle which you would needle from the top down if you were doing submuscular needling.
It’s like a triangle. This is the temporalis muscle and using a series of needles all around the temporalis can really help to relax this temporalis muscle, which can become very tight. And as you can see, the auricular muscles are also attached to it. And these can, you can use submuscular needling under these and the temporalis.
A lot of the facial and neck muscles are connected to it, either directly or indirectly through the occipital frontals or through the coming back here through the trapezius and. By treating this muscle you can help to affect a lot of conditions on the face, and this is what it looks like when it’s needled.
The masseter is the big strong muscle that if you clench your jaw, you can feel it. And needling underneath that can really help patients that have TMJ and it looks like this, and the auricular muscles. I use these in all of my cosmetic treatments. Needling, underneath those auricular muscles is something that can help to lift the face area.
And I have helped, I have found it has helped my patients who have ear pain and tinnitus and so that is my. Presentation about Submuscular needling. Again, it was very brief, but I wanted to give you guys an overview If you are. I’m interested in learning more. You can visit my website, facial acupuncture classes.com, and I am also available on social media at my name, Michelle Gilles, or at Facial Acupuncture.
Classes. Once again, I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity to speak to you today about Submuscular needling of the faith.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
Did you know acupuncture can help reduce the frequency and intensity of migraine headaches?
Studies show acupuncture moderately decreases headache frequency and provides a small reduction in intensity.
One study found acupuncture more effective than pharmaceutical treatment in reducing migraine frequency, with fewer side effects.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends acupuncture for chronic headaches or migraines that don’t respond to medication.
Acupuncture offers a safe, effective option for managing migraines, providing patients with a complementary treatment that reduces reliance on pharmaceuticals.
And remember, the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.
There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.
Not an American Acupuncture Council member? Get a Quick Quote and find out how much you will save! Click here!
I’m sharing one very simple SEO strategy to help more local people find you on Google. And before we get into it, I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for the opportunity to be here with you today.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Well, I’m Michelle Grasek, acupuncturist marketing strategist and host of the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast, and today I’m sharing one very simple SEO strategy to help more local people find you on Google. And before we get into it, I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for the opportunity to be here with you today.
All right, so let’s get into the slides and talk about this strategy.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
So I know that most people already know what SEO is search engine optimization, but I wanna offer a, maybe a slightly different way of thinking about it or a new definition that is going to be useful for us today. So search engine optimization is really the art of getting your website and your business to rank higher in a Google search.
And I think it’s really important to note that we have the opportunity through. Search engine optimization to tell Google. When we are the answer to a question that someone has typed into the search, right? When our business is the answer to a search query, and it means that we also have the opportunity to tell Google what kind of patients to send us, right?
And I think this is very important because so much that you can do with search engine optimization is free. And we really underestimate the impact that we can have. But we have to be willing to, I. Help Google help us, right? Because Google’s only using what’s already on our website and our Google business profile, for example, to understand our business.
And if it’s very thin in terms of content and we don’t have any keywords that reference the symptoms and the patients that we like to treat, how is Google supposed to know? When we are the right answer to a search query or how is Google supposed to know which sort of patients to send to us, to our website?
So really what we’re doing with search engine optimization is we are teaching Google when we are the answer to a question and helping it better understand our business. We are helping Google help us. Okay. So it’s a great opportunity that we have. And specifically when we’re talking about local SEO, there’s three things that have a huge impact.
So they are relevance, proximity, and prominence. So let’s talk about each of these briefly. So relevance is essentially how, how well does your business answer the question that someone put in to Google? How closely aligned is what you offer to the thing they are asking for. Okay. Are you a good fit for this search query, right?
Or your business? And proximity, of course is how Google determines when someone types in something like acupuncture near me. How Google determines whether you are within a reasonable range to show up for this person’s search, right? So if someone is searching acupuncture near me, and your clinic is an hour away.
Maybe Google’s going to decide that’s too far, right? There are other acupuncturists who are closer and it’s going to prioritize them towards the top of a search, right? And again, this is specific for near me searches, okay? Because Google is using the location of the user, like where is their cell phone, what are the coordinates when they’re typing in this question, and what is the address of your brick and mortar business and what is the distance between them?
Okay, so that’s proximity. And then prominence is really how authoritative, how engaged, how popular is your business, how much are people talking about your business? And this is both. In terms of online and offline, but Google is using signals like reviews of your business, links from other business websites that are local, that are near your clinic to your website.
Mentions of your business. Social media or elsewhere on the internet, that doesn’t necessarily have to be linked, although that’s always great, but maybe someone is talking about your business on Facebook. Maybe someone actually tags your business in a post on Facebook. Okay. Or Instagram. And Google’s paying attention all of these signals to help it understand like how well known, how established is your business.
Because all of this. All of these factors that contribute to prominence, build trust with Google, because really Google wants to make sure that any business that it recommends in the search results is actually active. And is a part of a community, right? It’s called the Worldwide Web for a reason.
Like it’s building a web of all of these threads that come back to your business and your website and your Google business profile. And it’s checking to see is there a local web of people who are referring to your business? And that just builds a lot of confidence and trust in Google and makes it more likely to rank your website.
Above some of your competitors who maybe have less prominent signals in the search results. Okay. And today what we are gonna focus on is just one very simple. Addition or change that you can make on your website that has a huge impact. And this is called location modifiers. And that’s just a fancy term for adding your location to specific places on your website.
Very strategic places that Google cares about to help Google better understand your business. And I wanna clarify, because what we’re doing is we’re going to add things like. Let me see if I can give you an, I’ll just give you an example. Instead of having a conditions page, like if you love treating migraine patients, maybe you have a big long page on your website that’s acupuncture for migraines, and you talk about what are migraines and who’s a good fit for acupuncture, for migraines, and what has been your experience what are the symptoms that you’re helping people with why should they pick your clinic, et cetera, et cetera.
At the top of that page, instead of just having the title be acupuncture for Migraines, adding a location modifier would be as simple as saying acupuncture for migraines in Scottsdale, Arizona, or maybe your town. Or your neighborhood. You could narrow it down a little. Okay. And I wanna clarify something.
So if we go back, my students, my marketing students ask me this all the time, and they are assuming that by adding our location keyword, they’re. Addressing the proximity piece of their local SEO when this is actually not the case. So what we’re doing when we are adding location keywords is we are improving the relevance of like helping Google better understand our business, who we are, what we do, who we serve, and like where we serve.
That it just counts under the relevance category because you can’t really impact proximity with keywords because Google knows your physical location address, and it also knows the physical location of the searcher. It knows the coordinates on their cell phone as they’re Googling something. And so if someone’s typing, acupuncture near me. It’s calculating that distance right and no amount of you adding other location keywords can change Google’s mind about your physical. Location and your address. Okay, so I hope that makes sense. So we’re not impacting proximity here. We’re impacting relevance because what if someone searches cosmetic acupuncture, Rochester, New York, right?
And you are in Rochester. Now you have the opportunity if you’re including Rochester as your keywords. You are telling Google, okay, I’m more relevant for this specific search query because my business is the answer to what this person put in. I do cosmetic acupuncture. I’m located in Rochester. I’m perfect.
I am the answer to the search query. Show me at the top of the search. Okay, so I hope that makes sense. So our focus here is going to be helping Google understand our business in this specific context based on location. Okay? And it’s super easy. These are very easy changes to make on your website.
So we’re gonna do two. Things. So the first is you are going to add these location modifiers to specific pages on your website. You are gonna update existing pages and blog posts, and then in the future, as you add more pages or blog posts, you always wanna remember to include your location. And then the second thing I’d like you to do is to add location modifiers to specific places on your Google business profile.
So let’s talk about your website first. So I’ll give you a bunch of examples. I mentioned the acupuncture for Migraines page. So I find that a lot of people do have these conditions pages on their website. So for example, if you wanted more pain management digestion in women’s health patients, like those are your favorite.
You would wanna have on your website, one page for each. Talking about, what kind of things can acupuncture help for in pain management? And who’s a good fit and what are the outcomes? What are the symptoms? Why is you, why should they pick your clinic? And I often find that sometimes people will just give that page the title, pain management, or maybe they’ll do.
Pain management, acupuncture. And all we’re doing in this case is just adding your location to that title, right? So Pain Management Acupuncture in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Okay. Because then think about. Each of those parts of that title is a key word, right? You have acupuncture, you have pain management, and you have Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
If we’re thinking about how your ideal person is searching for you, they’re probably searching for a combination of those things, okay? So this is really optimizing your website in a big way, and I just can’t emphasize this enough that it’s helping Google better understand your business and helping make you more relevant to your.
Ideal patient. We are just, we’re giving Google more information and we’re repeating, we’re gonna add your location in multiple places. We’re repeating it so that there’s consistency across your website, really emphasizing this. Okay, so some more examples would be migraine Acupuncture in Scottsdale, Arizona, acupuncture for Chronic Knee Pain in Rochester, New York.
You can also add your location. To service pages, so not just conditions, but also your service pages. So most people have a page that describes, what is acupuncture, and then another for what is cupping, what is Chinese herbal medicine, maybe? What is Chinese dietary therapy. So on those pages, you also want to add your location.
So for example, nutrition for hormone balance in Queens, New York. Okay.
So specifically, where are you at in your location? And I’m actually gonna go, I’m gonna share my screen and go on the backend of my website to show you what I’m talking about for some of these. So on your homepage above the fold, you wanna make sure your location is on there somewhere, and on your conditions pages and your service pages, you can see I’ve got it in parentheses here.
You want to add your location in either your SEO title or your H one header? You could do both. It depends on the layout of your page and we’ll talk about that, but one. Is great. Okay. One or the other. And you can add your location into the first paragraph of each of your conditions, pages, and service pages.
If you feel like you can add it naturally, if it’s a challenge and it doesn’t flow with the paragraph or make sense, that’s okay. It’s not as strong as having your location in your SEO title and your H one headers. And then you should also put your location in your meta description for your. Various pages.
So let’s talk about these. So what is above the fold? So this is a screenshot of my website. Above the fold is when you land on a new website, before you have scrolled at all, whatever you can see when you land there, that is considered above the fold. And this is very high value real estate because Google puts a lot of weight.
On whatever you place in this section and this section. So if you are able to add text on top of a, an image, that’s usually pretty common on most websites. You have a header image and then you can put text and a button on top of it. That’s usually an H one heading. So this is the H one heading on your homepage above the fold, Google is giving a lot of weight.
To this section. So you want to make sure that you are adding your location so you can see that I listed the conditions that myself and my associates like to treat. So things we specialize in, women’s health, cosmetic acupuncture, and pain management in Seneca Falls, New York. Okay, so now let me go behind the scenes of my website and I’m actually gonna let me back up a little bit.
So I have WordPress and if you have Wix or Weebly or Squarespace, then your website is probably going to look different, but hopefully you can still figure out where to find these things. It’s probably just the layout or the organization is a little bit different, but everything we’re gonna talk about should still exist in your website and you should be able to edit it.
So over here on the left, I’m gonna click on pages. And then I’m just gonna pick a page as an example. Let’s do the diverticulitis page. So this is the backend of this page. And you can see right here in this section it says, acupuncture for Diverticulitis Relief in Seneca Falls. So this is my SEO title.
This is the title of the page. Okay. Pretty straightforward. And then if we scroll down a little bit, there is a section here, it says preview. It is giving me a preview of if this page were to come up in a Google search result, this is what it would look like and you can modify it. And that’s what we wanna do.
So I’m gonna say edit snippet. Okay. And then you can see, I can change the, so this is the meta title, and then down here is the meta description. Okay. So if you recall from our last slide, I said that one of the places where you can put your location is in the meta description. So that’s down here. So let’s say that someone Googles, diverticulitis relief, Seneca Falls or Diverticulitis treatment, Seneca Falls or something like that. And in the search results, in the list of organic results, you would see this if it, if Google decided that my business would rank. Okay, so that’s. The description is right here. So that’s where people are seeing like, what is this page about?
And helping them decide. Do I wanna click through and continue reading? So in my description it says, learn how acupuncture for diverticulitis can help reduce pain, bloating, and digestive discomfort. Natural diverticulitis care in Seneca Falls, New York. Okay, and then you can see I also added Seneca Falls, New York in this meta title, which is this part right here.
So I think it’s ideal to have it in both places and this section where you get to edit your metadata. Is often included at the bottom of a page. So if you are creating a new page on your website, it’s probably, you have to scroll down a bit. And I’m using an SEO widget called Rank Math, but a lot of people have a widget that is called Yost, Y-O-A-S-T, and these are free, they have free versions, and that’s what I’m using.
So I don’t have all the features, but the most important thing is it is allowing me to edit this. Snippet so I can edit the metadata and add my location. So then I’m gonna say edit. I use Elementor as just like a very common design platform that fits into WordPress, but I wanna show you something. So I also mentioned adding your location to H one headings on your symptom and conditions pages.
So what. This is the page and this here at the top, if you recall. This is my SEO title. This is the title of the page. So if I scroll down, I’ve got all of this text that can be edited and. Right here it says, what is diverticulitis? And it’s probably pretty small. I don’t know if you can see this, but this is, it says heading one.
So that’s an H one level heading. And if you do the dropdown, there’s heading two, heading three, heading four, blah, blah, blah. So heading one is where you would want to add your location, if it makes sense. So on this particular page. I already have my location in my SEO title and I felt like it would be detrimental for the user experience for me to repeat this exact statement.
Acupuncture for Diverticulitis Relief in Seneca Falls again down here. So you’ll notice that in this H one heading, I don’t have Seneca Falls because. I decided that it’s already in the SEO title. It’s fine and it is important when you are adding. Keywords for SEO to always keep in mind that readability is really important.
You don’t just wanna stuff keywords everywhere so that it is awkward and cumbersome for a real human to read because you also want your page to be compelling for potential patients and to make sense to them and not be really redundant. That’s very important. And Google also cares about that, right?
So you can choose where you wanna put your your location in this case on your symptoms and conditions pages. And if you can fit it into both the SEO title and the H one heading, then that’s great. Okay, so let’s go back. I think I covered everything. Let’s see, above the fold, SEOH one meta descriptions.
Okay, so we’ll keep going. There’s only a few more things to share with you. And again, these are very simple. So I also want you to think about your blog content and going back in and editing your blog posts and adding your location to the title of some of your blog posts. So let me give you some examples how acupuncture helps with seasonal allergies in Portland.
What to expect at your first acupuncture visit in Denver. Acupuncture for runners recovering from the New York City Marathon. Okay? So each of those is helping improve your relevance by including your location keyword. Okay? And then when you’re writing blog posts in the future, you wanna try to keep that in mind, like, how can I incorporate my location into the title of this blog post?
And maybe mention it at least one time in the body of the blog post. And then the other thing I would love for you to do today, and this is again very straightforward and simple, is to add your location to two places on your Google business profile. So one is in your Google business description you wanna add.
Your service, probably acupuncture, and then your town or your city. So the same exact thing we’ve been doing, right? Like acupuncture for pain management, digestion, and women’s health in Seneca Falls, New York. You would wanna add that to your Google business description, and you can also add your description in your Google Business profile posts.
Sometimes they’re also called updates. So let me share my screen again. Just briefly, so here we have my Google Business profile for my practice, and if we scroll down.
This is the business description. Okay? So you’d wanna make sure that your location was included in there. And I think it’s a little confusing. I like to point it out because it doesn’t say business description, it just says from Seneca Falls Acupuncture. Okay? But that’s what this is where it says from your business, that’s the business description.
And then down here where I have these. They look like posts to me, but they are technically called updates. You when you are adding an update, you can add some text. I would just make sure that you are referencing your location for whatever kind of update you are adding. Okay, so I do have an example for you.
Whoops. Let’s go back here.
So let’s say that you wrote an update for your Google business profile about knee pain. You could add a header, so to speak, where you’re sharing like what this update is about, treating knee pain and running injuries in Tempe, Arizona, and then you could continue on with. The rest of your information that you’re sharing in that update.
Okay. But just making sure that you’ve got your location in there somewhere. This really helps to tie your website and your Google business profile together, among other things that also assist with that. But this is a really helpful one that can have a big impact on where you show up in the map pack and the organic search results.
And you wanna think of your website and your Google business profile. Like an ecosystem, they should reflect each other, right? So both of them should be helping Google better understand your business and your ideal patients so it knows who to send to you. So a couple of quick things that you can do, if you can check off everything that I’ve mentioned, or if you just wanna do a couple.
And have some quick wins. I would change the I would add your location on your homepage above the fold. I would add your location to any conditions pages that you have, and I would make sure you add it to your Google business description. Okay. So just a couple things for you to do very quickly. That will have a huge impact on.
Your Google rank. So thank you so much for being here. As always, if you have questions, feel free to send me an email, michelle@michelleGrasek.com. I do have a couple of workshops that are on these topics if you wanna dive deep. And you can visit michelle Grasek.com/google. And as always, I would like to say thank you so much to the American Acupuncture Council for the opportunity to be here and share this information with you today.
Have a great day.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
Did you know acupuncture can help with pregnancy-induced nausea and allergy symptoms?
Studies show acupuncture reduces hot flashes by 40%, though it’s not superior to sham acupuncture.
It has also been shown to offer modest relief for perennial allergy symptoms, with effects lasting up to four weeks, but it’s less effective for seasonal allergies.
The American Academy of Otolaryngology, Head, and Neck Surgery supports acupuncture for treating allergic rhinitis, offering a complementary option for patients seeking relief.
Incorporating acupuncture into a treatment plan can provide patients with a holistic approach to managing symptoms, improving overall wellness, and enhancing their quality of life.
And remember, the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.
There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.
Not an American Acupuncture Council member? Get a Quick Quote and find out how much you will save! Click here!
Did you know acupuncture can improve healthcare outcomes when integrated into team-based care?
For effective treatment, physicians and nurses should understand acupuncture and remain open to its use as part of a holistic treatment plan.
Acupuncturists play a key role by educating patients and healthcare providers about acupuncture’s principles and benefits.
When complementary and alternative treatments like acupuncture are used alongside conventional medicine, it enhances collaboration, broadens care options, and leads to better patient outcomes.
Embracing diverse modalities improves patient health and well-being!
And remember, the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.
There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.
Not an American Acupuncture Council member? Get a Quick Quote and find out how much you will save! Click here!
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.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
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.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
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.
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.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsI ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
