Avoiding Out Of Pocket Health Care Costs For Chronic Pain Diagnosis
Often a patient does not know, or the company providing the products fail to inform, but most tens and Infrex accessories will be paid for by the health insurance companies, including Medicare.
Unfortunately many chronic pain patients are not aware that the tens supplies and other topical pain treatments are covered by most insurance companies. The cost for an interferential/tens combination unit, or stand alone tens units are only the tip of the iceberg. It's the continuing cost of reusable electrodes, rechargeable batteries, pain patches, sleep aids, and skin care products that are the cost the patient often bears unnecessarily.
The key to avoiding extra out of pocket costs is to have the purchase of the tens or Infrex unit in the record of the chronic pain patient such as the below diagnosis of:
- Radiating Sciatica
- RSD
- Osteoarthritis
- Shingles
- Chronic Low Back Pain
- Back Pain
- Shoulder Pain
- Joint Pain
- TMJ
- Lumbar Stenosis
- Hip Pain
- Neuralgia
- Diabetic Neuropathy
- and other diagnosis indicative of chronicity.
Once the insurance company has a record of the purchase then in almost all cases the supplies will be covered each month, for as long as the patient has the unit and suffers from a form of chronic pain. The insurance companies are well aware of the reduced costs to them by using non drug treatment methods, plus drugs are a continuing cost often escalating and requiring additional drugs to offset the effects of the prescribed drugs already being used.
In the case of Medicare patients the record of a tens unit purchase usually means between $32 - $64.00 per month of the necessary items are paid for by Medicare. In most situations this is enough for the patient to be able to successfully treat with their unit. Over the course of one year the savings to the patient will be between $384 - $768, and that's only the first years savings for the patient who is using a tens or Infrex unit!!
