CMS Pub. 100-04, ch. 32, § 410.1

Effective for services on or after January 21, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will cover

acupuncture for chronic low back pain (cLBP) under section 1862(a)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act. Up to 12 visits in

90 days are covered for Medicare beneficiaries under the following circumstances:

• For the purpose of this decision, cLBP is defined as:

o Lasting 12 weeks or longer;

o nonspecific, in that it has no identifiable systemic cause (i.e., not associated with metastatic, inflammatory,

infectious, etc. disease);

o not associated with surgery; and

o not associated with pregnancy.

• An additional 8 sessions will be covered for those patients demonstrating an improvement. No more than 20

acupuncture treatments may be administered annually. Example: If the 1st service is performed on March 21, 2020,

the next service beginning a new year cannot be performed until March 1, 2021. This means 11 full months must

pass from the date of the 1st service before eligibility begins again.

All types of acupuncture including dry needling for any condition other than cLBP are non-covered by Medicare.