Is Acupuncture Too Expensive?

In my survey last month, 20% of respondents felt that people don’t try acupuncture because it’s too expensive.

What a great opportunity to spread the word about community acupuncture!

Standard market rates for acupuncture can range from $50 to over $100 for a one-hour treatment. And since acupuncture usually requires a series of treatments to get lasting results, that cost is prohibitively expensive for most people.

This is the case for acupuncturists who have private-room practices—since they only see one or two people an hour, the prices for each patient have to be higher. Acupuncturists have to eat, after all.

However, River Valley Acupuncture is part of a growing movement of community acupuncturists. We practice in a group setting and see more people per hour. In that way, we are able to charge our patients lower fees. Members of the Community Acupuncture Network agree not to charge more than $45 per treatment; at River Valley, we charge a sliding scale of $20-$40.

Now, even these rates may be too costly for some people. But the thought is that the sliding scale will make acupuncture more accessible to a larger number of people—and hopefully, this will make more people willing to try acupuncture in the first place!

So, do you still think acupuncture is too expensive?

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