We may still treat Medicare patients, and your secondary insurance may reimburse you.  We have 'contracts' at the front desk explaining to your secondary that we have opted-out of Medicare and allowing you to seek reimbursement from them.  Patients are required to self-pay at the time of service.

We have made this decision because the Medicare system is extremely flawed and will not likely change until enough people protest loudly to the government.  It is very sad that the number of providers accepting Medicare is shrinking all the time, but there are good reasons for this and it has nothing to do with the patients themselves who are merely victims of a dysfunctional system.

Medicare does not pay at all for many of the services we provide, such as acupuncture.  If we treat a patient with acupuncture Medicare may deny the entire visit, not just the acupuncture treatment, and we have no legal right to request payment from the patient or their secondary insurance. 

Medicare also has very complex and strict rules regarding documentation and patient billing.  If things are not done exactly right (including charging a patient TOO LITTLE based on what was documented) Medicare may charge the clinic a very high fine for "Medicare fraud".

We deeply regret that there is a population we are unable to help because of this, and encourage everyone affected to right to their congressmen and plead for change.