This article is one of a series covering back pain — causes, symptoms, and the treatments we use at Back and Body Medical in Midtown Manhattan. For the complete overview, see the full guide:
Did you know, many of the most popular insurance services such as United Health Care and Aetna provide a certain number of chiropractic visits each year. The number of these visits varies by plan, so check with your company first, but they can be used to help you with pain relief or even prevention of pain.
The catch is that these visits do not roll over into the new year, so it’s a case of use it or lose it.
We are now nearing the final part of the year, and you may already have used some visits already, but if you have some pain, even if it is minor, it’s best to get it treated now and use up some of those visits before the year end.
Two reasons. Firstly, an issue caught in its early stages is easier to treat and will typically require fewer visits. Secondly, if you do leave it and the problem becomes worse, then it will likely take up more visits and it may be towards the end of the year and you haven’t a chance of utilizing all the visits for this year meaning you will have to eat into next years allocation.
So say you have 12 visits per year. It’s getting towards the end of the year and you’ve used two. There’s two weeks left, so you may use up 4 in those two weeks, but the problem isn’t resolved. So you go into next years allocation in the new year and it takes another 4 visits to resolve. You now have 8 visits for the remainder of the year. Get treated now and it may only take a couple of visits meaning you will have 8 left between now and the end of the year. A handy insurance. New year comes and you’re back up to the full allocation of visits.
Another reason to use the visits up, even if you have no pain is to get your spine adjusted and help prevent future problems. You’ve already paid for the visits through your insurance, so why not take advantage of it? Prevention is better than cure after all.
So schedule an appointment and come in for a tune up or to get that annoying problem sorted before you run out of visits.
In pain? Want a tune up?
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Dr Shan Sivendra MD is the founder and medical director of Back and Body Medical in Midtown Manhattan. A board-certified medical doctor, certified acupuncturist, and Director of House Physicians at St. Barnabas Medical Center, Dr Sivendra has been practicing in New York since 1995.
He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Saint Barnabas Medical Center (affiliated with Mount Sinai School of Medicine) and received the Resident Research Award for three consecutive years.
Dr Sivendra has a background spanning internal medicine, pain management, and conservative spine rehabilitation, and was licensed in both the US and the UK.
At Back and Body Medical, he leads a multidisciplinary team of chiropractors, physical therapists, and acupuncturists dedicated to helping patients recover from pain without surgery or unnecessary medication.
Further Reading: Back Pain