Medicare and Chiropractic Maintenance Visits
Simply put, Medicare does not consider maintenance care to be medically necessary and as such it is not a reimbursable expense under Medicare.
What is maintenance care? Maintenance is defined as services that seek to prevent disease, promote health and prolong and enhance the quality of life, or maintain or prevent deterioration of a chronic condition.
The definition continues:
When further clinical improvement cannot reasonably be expected from continuous ongoing care, and the chiropractic treatment becomes supportive rather than corrective, the treatment is considered maintenance therapy.
Thus, Medicare will pay for care when you have an expensive, full-blown neuromusculoskeletal problem, but will not cover routine visits to support ones health and potentially prevent the episode from occurring in the first place or again.
Could this be why we have the most expensive health care costs on the planet, but dont enjoy good health?