Clinics from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs. Medicare accepted at every one.
Medicare pays for pain care that is medically necessary, and Mountain View Pain Center bills it directly at every Colorado clinic. Interventional Pain Management, Physical Therapy, Chiropractic spinal manipulation and, on some plans, Acupuncture for chronic low back pain are all covered benefits — with different rules for each, which is where most of the confusion starts. Call (720) 749-5599.
We verify your Part B, Medigap or Medicare Advantage benefits before your first visit and tell you what the visit will cost, rather than after treatment has started.
Same-week appointments are usually available across the Front Range.
Medicare does not treat all four of our services the same way. Knowing which rule applies to you before you book is the difference between a covered visit and a bill you did not expect.
Part B covers office visits, diagnostic work and procedures that are medically necessary — epidural steroid injections, medial branch and nerve blocks, radiofrequency ablation, joint and trigger-point injections, and spinal cord stimulator trials and implants. Medically necessary is the operative phrase: coverage follows the diagnosis and the documented response to what you have already tried, which is why the evaluation comes first. See what Pain Management involves.
Part B covers medically necessary outpatient Physical Therapy, and there is no annual dollar cap on it — the old therapy cap was repealed. Above a per-year threshold your therapist has to attest in the record that the care is still necessary, which is routine. A provider does have to certify that you need therapy, so this is the one service where a physician's sign-off is genuinely part of the process. You pay 20% of the approved amount after your Part B deductible.
This is the one people get wrong most often. Part B covers exactly one thing from a chiropractor: manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation. It does not cover X-rays a chiropractor orders, or acupuncture performed in a chiropractic visit. What Medicare covers for Chiropractic care, in full. Those can still be the right care — they are simply not a Medicare benefit, and we will tell you that up front rather than after. See Chiropractic care.
Medicare covers Acupuncture for chronic low back pain only — pain lasting twelve weeks or longer, with no identifiable systemic cause, and not linked to surgery or pregnancy. The benefit runs to twelve sessions in ninety days, with eight more available (twenty in a year) if you are improving; if you are not improving, coverage stops. Whether your particular plan will pay for it here is exactly the kind of thing we check before you come in.
Original Medicare pays 80% of the approved amount for covered outpatient care once you have met your Part B deductible for the year. The remaining 20% is yours. There is no cap on that 20% under Original Medicare on its own, which is the reason most people carry something alongside it.
Mountain View Pain Center is in network with most Medicare Advantage plans — call to confirm yours.
If you have a Medigap (supplement) policy, it usually picks up most or all of that 20%. If you are on a Medicare Advantage plan, the rules are the plan's rather than Medicare's: co-pays are often fixed per visit, the network matters, and some plans require prior authorization for injections and imaging. We verify which of these you are on before your first visit and tell you what to expect — see the plans we accept.
Pain that has been managed with medication for years, or written off as part of getting older, is usually still worth a proper workup.
Medicare open enrollment runs from October 15 to December 7, with whatever you choose taking effect on January 1. There is a second, narrower window from January 1 to March 31 in which someone already on a Medicare Advantage plan can switch to a different Advantage plan or move back to Original Medicare — it is not a general shopping window, and it is the one people most often assume is wider than it is.
Read the Annual Notice of Change first. It arrives in the fall, it is easy to mistake for junk mail, and it is the document that tells you what is changing about the plan you already have — the network, the costs, the rules — for the year ahead. Plenty of people switch plans when the useful comparison was between their current plan next year and their current plan this year.
Check the network from both ends. A plan's directory and a clinic's own answer can disagree, and directories go out of date. We are in network with most Medicare Advantage plans; call to confirm yours before you commit to anything. It costs one phone call and it is the single most useful thing you can do in this window.
If you are part-way through a course of care, say so when you are comparing plans. A change on January 1 can mean a new authorization, a new deductible, or a course of Physical Therapy that has to be re-approved — none of which is a reason not to switch, but all of which is easier to plan for in November than to discover in January. Ask us and we will tell you where you are in the year and what would carry over.
This is general information about how the windows work, not advice about your particular plan. What we can tell you is whether we are in network with a plan you are considering, and what your benefits look like before your visit rather than after.
The same Medicare rules apply at every Colorado clinic, so the only question is which one is easiest to get to. Start from the metro nearest you, or open the full clinic map.
Not to be seen. You can request an evaluation directly. Physical Therapy is the exception in practice — Medicare requires a provider to certify that the therapy is necessary, and our physicians can do that at the first visit. Some Medicare Advantage plans have their own referral rules, which we check when we verify your benefits.
Both, along with Medigap supplements. Advantage plans vary a great deal — network, co-pay and prior-authorization rules are set by the plan rather than by Medicare — so tell us which plan you carry when you call and we will check it before you come in.
Under Original Medicare, 20% of the approved amount once your Part B deductible is met, and usually much less if you carry a supplement. Under an Advantage plan it is typically a fixed co-pay. We verify your benefits and tell you the number before your first visit, not after.
No annual dollar cap. Past a yearly threshold your therapist has to document in the record that continued therapy is still medically necessary, which is a normal part of the note rather than an obstacle.
No. The Medicare benefit for Acupuncture covers chronic low back pain and nothing else. We are happy to treat other areas, but that would be self-pay, and we will say so before you book rather than after the claim comes back.
Whichever is easiest to get to — the same Medicare rules apply at all of them. See every Colorado clinic, or call (720) 749-5599 and we will point you to the closest one.
Open enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, and what you choose starts on January 1. There is a second, narrower window from January 1 to March 31 in which someone already on a Medicare Advantage plan can switch to a different Advantage plan or return to Original Medicare. Outside those windows, changes generally need a qualifying life event. Read your Annual Notice of Change before comparing anything — it tells you what is changing about the plan you already have.
Tell us before you switch rather than after. A change on January 1 can mean a new authorization, a new deductible, or a course of Physical Therapy that has to be re-approved. None of that is a reason not to switch, but all of it is easier to plan for in November than to discover in January. We are in network with most Medicare Advantage plans — call to confirm the one you are considering, and we will tell you what would carry over.
Medicare is accepted at every Mountain View Pain Center clinic in Colorado and Arizona — see Pain Management or the full clinic map.
