US · guidance
NCD 30.3.1
Acupuncture for Fibromyalgia
Item/Service Description
A. General
Acupuncture is the selection and manipulation of specific acupuncture points by a variety of needling and non-needling techniques.
Indications and Limitations of Coverage
B. Nationally Covered Indications
N/A for acupuncture for fibromyalgia.
C. Nationally Non-Covered Indications
Effective for claims with dates of service on and after April 16, 2004, after careful reconsideration of its initial non-coverage determination for acupuncture, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) concludes that there is no convincing evidence for the use of acupuncture for pain relief in patients with fibromyalgia. Study design flaws presently prohibit assessing acupuncture’s utility for improving health outcomes. Accordingly, CMS determines that acupuncture is not considered reasonable and necessary for the treatment of fibromyalgia within the meaning of §1862(a)(1) of the Social Security Act, and the national non-coverage determination for acupuncture for fibromyalgia continues.
D. Other
N/A
(This NCD last reviewed April 2004.)
Revision History
05/2020 - The purpose of this change request is to inform MACs that CMS will cover acupuncture for chronic low back pain (cLBP) effective for claims with dates of service on and after January 21, 2020. (TN 10128) (CR11755)
04/2004 - Noncoverage for acupuncture continued. Effective and implementation dates 04/16/2004. (TN 11) (CR 3250)
History
Version 2
Provenance
- Source
- cms.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-26
- Edition
- mcd-2026-08-26
- Content hash
9cf410a487afcd08bc27c26f8c9c8003bf8fd7c91c1f1dc6708719649c74ee54
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