introduction

Welcome to Our Community

	COMMUNITY CLINIC	STANDARD CLINIC
Treatment space............................	Multiple patients in a common room, on tables or recliner chairs	One patient in each room, on a massage table,behind closed door
Privacy.............................................	Less privacy, but respectful quiet atmosphere	Maximum privacy
Fees.................................................	$15 to 40 per treatment	$50 to $250 per treatment
Group treatments...........................	Easily facilitated	One person to each room
Length of acupuncture treatment.	Varies from 20 minutes to 45 minutes	Normally at least 45 minutes
Frequency of treatments................	One to four times a week	Normally once a week
Talking with the acupuncturist.......	10 minutes maximum	Sometimes as long as 45 min.
Insurance Coverage......................	None, but receipt can be submitted by patient to insurance company for reimbursement	Usually, for as often as coverage allows, often with co-payment. Submitted by acupuncture office.
Funding...........................................	From the patients themselves	Some have grants from state or federal funds, most rely on patient fees
Disrobing for treatment..................	Only shoes, socks need be removed, and pant legs and sleeves pushed up to the knee and elbow.	Disrobing and wearing a clinic gown is common.

What We Need From You

Responsibility
If you have a condition you are worried about, please consult a medical or naturopathic doctor, or osteopath, in addition to taking the acupuncture.
Once appointments are made, no reminder calls will be made to you. You are responsible for payment for appointments made if you do not appear or if you cancel with less than 24 hours notice. This clinic cannot exist unless the scheduled slots are filled.
If you need to be out of the clinic by a certain time, be sure to tell the acupuncturist before you are left with your needles. When you feel that you are done, open your eyes so that we can see that you are ready to leave.
Payment and scheduling: as soon as you enter, find your payment envelope and insert your payment for the treatment. Slip the envelope into the lockbox on the wall. Then check the schedule pages to see if there is a week of appointments that you have not yet seen. It has happened that patients who neglected to do this found later that their preferred slots were already filled by the time they called in to schedule.
If possible, please take all personal belongings with you into the treatment room.
Please turn off your cell phone.
Flexibility
Make yourself comfortable in the community room before your treatment. If your favorite table or recliner is already occupied, please take another chair.
Snoring: if others’ snoring disturbs your rest, please bring ear plugs to muffle the sound.. If the light bothers you while you recline, please bring an eye mask or cover for your comfort.
Commitment

It is very rare for any acupuncturist to be able to resolve a problem with one treatment. In China, a typical treatment protocol for a chronic condition could be acupuncture every other day for three months! Most of our patients don’t need that much acupuncture, but virtually every patient requires a course of treatment, rather than a single treatment, in order to get what they want from acupuncture.

All of our satisfied patients basically made a commitment to a course of treatment. On your first visit, we will suggest a course of treatment, which can be anything from “we’d like to see you once a week for six weeks” to “we’d really like to see you every day for the next four days”. This suggestion is based on our experience with treating different kinds of conditions. If you don’t come in often enough or long enough, acupuncture probably won’t work for you. The purpose of our sliding scale is to help you make that commitment. Our Commitment to You:

Questions about acupuncture

Since there isn’t time to explain Chinese Medicine to you each time you come in, we refer you to the reading material on the bookshelf, or the books Between Heaven and Earth or The Web That Has No Weaver. Shorter explanations can be found easily on the internet or in books at the public library.