Hey everybody it’s Dr. Zach here with Gonstead Family Chiropractic in beautiful sunny San Diego today I wanted to take a quick moment to talk about does chiropractic cover or should I say does your insurance cover chiropractic and the answer is it really depends. While this is not the answer you may have been wishing for. I am from the east coast, so I brought my straight forward approach to Kearny Mesa and surrounding San Diego communities.
I know a lot of us pay hefty premiums for our personal medical insurance, for our family’s medical insurance and a lot of us want to use that. In order for us to be able to use our insurance, there’s a lot of really key aspects to this and it might help if I lay out some crucial questions that may help answer some questions for you.
So the first thing you want to do is know what your insurance, specifically who your carrier is. You’d be amazed how many people aren’t sure of who their insurance carrier is. So what I mean is determining whether you have an Aetna, Cigna, Blue Shield, Anthem Blue Cross, Medicare, Kaiser, Sharp. Within each specific carrier there are several levels and plans. So it this is just a first phase step.
Once you know those first two things is where we come in to make this whole process beyond easy for you. You can either give our San Diego chiropractic office a call with your member ID number. This is a number that will be located right on the card. It is typically right around where your name is. It’ll say member ID and then it also say group number those are two key aspects. If you’re not sure if chiropractic covers your insurance, let us know we actually verify this information for free, no charge to you. All we ask is that you just simply send us a text message 858-859-1852. Simply drop a text with the photo of your insurance card along with a date of birth and we can verify that for you.
Now every chiropractor is different and they accept different insurances depending on their contractual agreement with each individual insurance company. At our office here in San Diego we accept majority of most major medical insurance companies. Some of the common ones we see are VEBA, United Healthcare, Blue Shield, Anthem Blue Cross, Medicare, VA Choice, Cigna, Aetna, sometimes Kaiser. We say sometimes because they have so many different plans within each group, it’s really challenging, but we have a system where we can identify what our specific office covers or does not cover. Feel free to reach out to us, let us know how we can help. There are some key components about insurance that you should be aware outside of is chiropractic care covered by my insurance.
One of those things are deductibles, a lot of people aren’t sure what that means. Deductible means that there’s a certain amount of money,just like your car insurance, that you have to pay out of your own pocket before insurance will kick in. So for an example we see anywhere from $500 deductible to $15,000 deductible before the insurance will kick in. But not everyone has a deductible.
Some people have things called co-pays. Co-pays are what people pay per visit. These are determined simply by your insurance company. It is not anything that we determine, you determine, or either one of us even have a decision or say-so in in. The insurance companies tell us how much you pay per visit and it’s subsidized through your insurance and then they pay a balance as partial payment. So an example of this is is lets say the adjustments are $50. Your co-pay is $25, the insurance pays the remaining balance. There is a lot more to it than that, but for simplicity purposes that is how it works. Much like the deductibles. Co-pays can range from pretty much we have seen in our office, as low as $5 up to honest I’ve seen as high as $75 in co-pays. Again it really really depends on your health insurance.
But again that’s why we’re here so we can help you figure that out. So as discussed prior any question you have on insurance we are here to help. We do handle this quite often, we have plenty of years experience in our office and we have our billing department who has over 20 years in the chiropractic office world. We also have our front office staff who’s amazing at this and she has over three or four years experience in this and she’s crushing it. As well as I have a few years under my belt as well. So between the combined knowledge of between us all there’s a substantial amount of valuable information that we can obtain for you.
If you’re not sure if insurance covers it or you’re interested in getting chiropractic care here in San Diego let us know we’ll be more than happy to help you out. We are centrally located, 15 minutes from anywhere in San Diego, specifically, we are located in Kearny Mesa. Lastly if your insurance does not have coverage or we are not in network with your insurance plan. Our office offers extremely affordable care not just for you, but for your family as well. Our chiropractic adjustments that are comparable if not less than some co-pays. Here is our new patient special of only $47.
We have been recognized as one of the best chiropractors in San Diego. That’s a shameless plug, I have no problem saying that because we work our tails off to make sure you are taken care both insurance wise, health wise, and everything in between. We make your health our priority. We’re here to help you guys so hope everyone is doing well stay healthy stay happy it will talk soon.