Whether you accept it, avoid it or live somewhere in between, insurance coverage has become a defining issue for our profession. Patients increasingly expect to use their benefits, practitioners want to be compensated fairly for their time and expertise, and the system itself remains – at best – fragmented. The encouraging news is that coverage has expanded in meaningful ways. The challenging news is that reimbursement, across the board, remains inadequate.
Jennifer Waters, LAc, Dipl. Ac
Jennifer Waters started her professional work in health and wellness in 1991. She has studied Chinese medicine, nutritional food cures, yoga and meditation for 15 years. For her undergraduate degree from Friends World College at Long Island University in New York, she studied Chinese medicine in the U.S., and also traveled to China, Japan, Hong Kong, Tibet and East Africa. Jennifer received her acupuncture degree from the Oriental Medical Institute of Hawaii in Honolulu in 1998, and became president of an acupuncture practice in Syracuse, New York, later that year.
The motivation behind the "Talking with the Masters" column, according to Ms. Waters, is to raise awareness within the traditional Chinese medicine community by sharing information from practitioners who have reached a level of mastery, and with this awareness, to identify long-term goals that will ultimately benefit the establishment of TCM in America.
She may be contacted at either www.lifesourceacupuncture.com or www.happyuterus.com.