Pathways Acupuncture
Low-Cost Clinic

Welcome to Pathways Community Acupuncture Clinic!

Please take a minute to read this introduction to our clinic. I am delighted that you are interested in joining us!

What is different about our Low-Cost Clinic?

We treat in a community setting – Most US acupuncturists treat patients on tables in individual rooms. This is not traditional in China and in Asia where acupuncture usually occurs in a community/ group setting. This allows for many patients to be treated at once, in a country where acupuncture treatment is a major therapy for treating most illnesses. It is not unusual for someone to come 2 -3 times a week for acupuncture when a condition is chronic and severe. Treating in a group setting allows for treating many people multiple times a week.

At Pathways Low-Cost Acupuncture Clinic, we have combined the Chinese style community clinic with a Mid-Westerner’s greater need for privacy by providing individual private treatment spaces. We treat three patients an hour, with each patient in a treatment room divided by curtains, similar to a hospital room setting. The first appointment includes a health history interview done in a private room for confidentiality. The clinic has a quiet, soothing environment with plants, soft lighting and relaxing music.

This clinic makes acupuncture affordable for everyone. The fees are based on a sliding scale of $20-35 per treatment (with a $5-$10 First- Appointment-only additional paperwork fee).

This new business model, which has been sweeping across the nation in the last four years, allows you to get the ongoing treatment you need to reach the greatest level of health. By getting the ongoing care that you need, you can enjoy a pain-free life, slow down the aging process, and restore your body’s ability to rejuvenate and energize itself.

Be Prompt or Lose Your Valuable Treatment Time! – A full treatment session lasts one hour, beginning promptly at your scheduled appointment time. It is best to arrive 10 minutes early to remove your coat and shoes in the waiting room and, perhaps, to use the bathroom. We treat three patients an hour, which means that, at the end of your scheduled hour, there is another patient who will arrive and need your treatment room for their acupuncture session. Unless you tell us that you need to leave sooner, we will automatically remove the needles 10 minutes before the next scheduled patient arrives. This allows you time to slowly get up and make your way out of the treatment room and back to the waiting room to leave. This whole process allows you a maximum of 40 minutes of relaxation time, after the acupuncture needles are inserted.

We have a sliding scale – Most US acupuncturists also see only one patient per hour and charge $60 to $175 per treatment. They tend to spend a long time talking with each patient, going over medical records, asking questions. In our Pathways Low-Cost Acupuncture Clinic we do not do this. The only way we at PLCC can make acupuncture affordable to all and still make a living ourselves is to streamline our treatments and see multiple patients an hour, so we have returned to the traditional approach; instead of asking lots of questions, we rely more on pulse diagnosis to decide how to treat you. This is exactly how acupuncture is practiced traditionally in Asia – many patients per hour and less talking.

Please see the Location, Hours & Fees page that explains our sliding scale. Because we have a sliding scale, we do not offer insurance billing for this type of clinic. If you have insurance or a health savings account that covers acupuncture, we will happily provide you with a payment receipt which you can submit to your insurance company. They do allow for you to seek reimbursement with them directly.

How To Pay For Your Acupuncture Treatment – Please have payment ready before your acupuncture session begins and hand it to the acupuncturist at the start of your session when she arrives to insert the needles. We provide payment envelopes in a basket in our entry room, which you may use if you like. We accept cash or check. We do not accept credit card payments. We allow for one missed appointment free of charge. After that, you will be charged a missed appointment fee of $15.00 for each missed appointment, which must be paid at the time of your next appointment.

Our Commitment To You – We want to make it possible for you to receive acupuncture regularly enough and long enough to get better and stay better. We want to give you the tools to take care of your own health, in a safe, clean, and relaxing environment with skilled practitioners.

What We Need From You
• Responsibility – PLCC does not provide primary care medicine. Acupuncture is a wonderful compliment to Western Medicine but it is not a substitute for it. If you think you have a problem that is not “garden variety” (meaning, you are worried that you might have a serious infection, a malignant growth, or an injury that won’t heal), or if you want someone to go over the details of your medical history from a western medical perspective, you need to see a primary care physician (MD or DO). We can provide some excellent, affordable referrals, even if you have no insurance coverage. But we cannot diagnose and treat a serious condition. We can provide complimentary care for conditions which require a physician’s attention – for instance, we often treat patients for the side effects of chemotherapy. But we need you to take responsibility for your own health.

PLCC does not receive grants, state or federal money, or insurance reimbursement. PLCC exists because patients pay for their treatments – it is a sustainable community business model.

• Flexibility – The community setting requires flexibility from you. For instance, some patients snore, so other patients who dislike snoring bring their own ear plugs to their treatments. We are grateful for this. Some of our patients even bring their own favorite pillows or blankets from home with them because they prefer theirs. We are happy that you can make yourself more comfortable during the treatment.

First Appointment – Before the first appointment, download and print a copy of our Health Questionnaire (by clicking here). Fill this form out completely and bring it with you to your first appointment. When you arrive for your first appointment, please enter into our “waiting room”, remove your shoes and put on a pair of treatment slippers from our box. Please wait there. I will come and greet you and show you to the private interview room where I will spend ten minutes discussing your health history and your reason for seeking treatment. Then I will guide you to a treatment chair or table where you can remove your socks, watch, and any bracelets and make yourself comfortable. Please bring your purse or any valuables with you to your treatment area. PLEASE SILENCE ALL CELL PHONES BEFORE ARRIVING. DO NOT LEAVE ON VIBRATE .You will then receive a treatment.

If you have questions about acupuncture and how it works – please see our “Frequently Asked Questions” page on our website. Unfortunately, we can’t explain what every point does, or how acupuncture works, while we are treating you – these subjects are very large topics! There is lots of information on the internet regarding acupuncture. Feel free to contact me via email at pathwaystc@charter.net for any questions or concerns you have regarding acupuncture and your health.

Re-scheduling and making appointments happens online at our secure and confidential online booking service provided by Appointment-Plus.

• Commitment – Acupuncture is a PROCESS. It is very rare for any acupuncturist to be able to resolve a problem with one treatment. In China, a typical treatment protocol for a chronic condition could be acupuncture every other day for three months! Most of our patients don’t need that much acupuncture, but virtually every patient requires a course of treatment, rather than a single treatment, in order to get what they want from acupuncture.

One big reason that we are able to keep our prices so low is because of the extraordinary amount of marketing our patients do on our behalf – we don’t have to advertise. We cannot express how grateful we are for this. Our patients are such effective marketers because they have first-hand experience of how well acupuncture works. All of our satisfied patients basically made a commitment to a course or treatment.

On your first visit, your acupuncturist will suggest a course of treatment, which can be anything from “we’d like to see you once a week for six weeks” to “we’d really like to see you every day for the next four days”. This suggestion is based on our experience with treating different kinds of conditions. If you don’t come in often enough or long enough, acupuncture probably won’t work for you. The purpose of our sliding scale is to help you make that commitment. If you have questions about how long it will take to see results, please ask us, or if you think you need to adjust your treatment plan, please let us know. We need you to commit to the process of treatment in order to get good results.

And last but not least…enjoy the space. We do, and hope that the Pathways Low-Cost Clinic can be an important part of your health and your community.

Thank you,

Jennifer S. Payne, LAc, MAcOM