By NANCY FRAZIER O'BRIEN
Although it has been effective in treating a wide range of ailments, the Chinese art of acupuncture is usually expensive and rarely covered by insurance.
But the Center for Integrative Medicine at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, Conn., is pioneering community acupuncture — a way to make the therapy available to more people by offering it in a group setting on a pay-what-you-can basis.
"This is a medicine for anybody," said Chris Gaunya, a licensed acupuncturist who has been offering group acupuncture sessions at Saint Francis for three years. "You don't have to have a chronic condition. It's great for health maintenance control and to manage stress."
Acupuncture is based on the principle that "the body has the innate ability to heal itself" and the Chinese belief that "if the entire body is in balance you are in a state of optimal health." Gaunya said that balance is achieved through the placement of needles in various parts of the body, depending on the condition being treated.
Sylvia Digby, an employee of the Connecticut Joint Replacement Institute at Saint Francis, has been receiving acupuncture treatments at the center for her colitis for about a year.
She still suffers from occasional symptoms, but when she has had to cancel one of her weekly appointments, she said she "really noticed a difference."
She receives about 20 needles in each treatment, but surprisingly "about 100 percent of the time I fall asleep," Digby said.
She is not alone, Gaunya said. "Most people are out like lights," he said. The needle placement does not hurt, Gaunya hastens to point out. "There is virtually no sensation at all."
Digby is trying to convince her son, who has migraine headaches, to join in the community acupuncture. "They've had some phenomenal results with migraines," she said.
Acupuncturist Chris Gaunya chats with patient Sylvia Digby before beginning her acupuncture treatment at the Center for Integrative Medicine at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, Conn.
Gaunya said other patients receive acupuncture treatments to help with low-back or shoulder pain, asthma and allergies, fatigue, neuropathy or the symptoms of multiple sclerosis or Crohn's disease, as well as to minimize the side effects of certain medications.
Although a private acupuncture session can range in cost from about $60 up to $200 an hour, the community acupuncture model asks patients to pay what they can afford between $20 and $40 a session. Each patient also pays a one-time fee of $10 for the initial consultation.
Gaunya said he sees the future of acupuncture in the community model, which makes the treatments "affordable and accessible to people."
"We've been fighting the battle for insurance (reimbursement) for a long time," he said. "But I don't think it is for the long-term benefit of acupuncture" to be a covered insurance benefit. "There are too many limitations" placed on practitioners by insurers, Gaunya said. Offering the procedure on a pay-what-you-can basis "takes the middle man out so that decisions are made between the practitioner and the patient."
He also said he hopes more hospitals will begin offering community acupuncture programs for their patients.
"Hospitals are going to start realizing that patients want this and that they improve more quickly and respond better to other treatments" after receiving acupuncture, he said.
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