When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
Over $300 Million in Chiropractic Medicare Services
At the end of 1996, after years of ignoring the chiropractic profession, the CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) code book finally included chiropractic manipulation treatment (CMT) codes. The concern at that time was what the reimburse rate would be for doctors of chiropractic under the new coding system (see "CPT Includes Chiropractic" in the November 18, 1996 issue).
Now a report has just been released by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) on the figures for chiropractic use by Medicare under the new CMT codes:
Code
98940 - Spinal CMT of one or two regions98941 - Spinal CMT of three or four regions
98942 - Spinal CMT of five regions
Chiropractors provided over 99 percent of the CMT in 1997. The average reimbursement rate is $25.52 per service, with an average of over $5,000 of Medicare reimbursement per U.S. chiropractor.
While these numbers are promising, they also provide us with a bench mark. We can now measure if DCs will continue to develop their relationships with Medicare patients. Will we see a growth in the Medicare patient base in 1998? The numbers will tell.