Community Acupuncture
Acupuncture works best when, especially at the beginning, patients can come regularly and often, up to several times per week for several weeks. In China where acupuncture is free, or very low cost, this is no problem But the way most acupuncture is practiced in the United States, at from $75 up to $200 per treatment, acupuncture is not affordable for everyone (including us acupuncturists!).
Many acupuncturists, who have seen so many suffering people helped by acupuncture, found this situation unacceptable and have decided to do something about it. Lisa Rohleder led the movement, called Community Acupuncture, to restore common sense values and humane principles to the US health care system. Under a community model, the patient, and not the practitioner, gets top priority, and acupuncture is practiced so that people can afford it at low cost as it is practiced in China in large rooms in a group setting.
Because several people can be treated at once, less can be charged per person and the savings is passed on to you. In addition, most patients report liking the group setting as they feel they receive the benefits from the "healing energy" in the quiet, peaceful acupuncture group setting.
Group treatments are wonderful for whole families and other groups who wish to come in together. We acupuncturists, who belong to the Community Acupuncture Network, hope to revolutionize and restore sense to a US health care system gone out of control.