Half the year in the Phoenix metro and half somewhere else is a common arrangement, and it works fine until you need ongoing care rather than a one-off. Then three things get in the way at once: whether your coverage travels, whether anyone here can see what has already been tried, and whether a plan you started in October has to start again from the beginning in November.
None of the three is hard to solve. They are just easier to solve in advance than in a waiting room.
Original Medicare travels. You can use any doctor or hospital in the United States that takes Medicare. There is no network and no service area, so a course of care in Arizona is treated exactly like a course of care at home. A Medicare supplement works the same way, because it sits on top of Original Medicare.
Medicare Advantage is where the care changes shape. Emergency care and urgently needed care are protected anywhere in the country — your plan has to cover them even out of its service area, and even without prior authorization. That is the part most people have heard about, and it is real.
What is not covered by that protection is routine, planned care, which is exactly what a course of Physical Therapy, a run of Chiropractic visits, Acupuncture, or a scheduled injection is. Those are not urgent by definition. Whether your plan covers them out of area depends on the plan: plans built on an HMO structure generally do not, and plans built on a PPO structure generally do at a higher cost to you. Some plans carry a visitor or traveler benefit specifically for this.
There is also a limit most people have never been told about: a Medicare Advantage plan is required to disenroll a member who has been away from the service area for more than six months. Plans with a visitor benefit can stretch that, but not past twelve. If you are away longer than six months, that is worth a phone call to your plan before it becomes a letter.
Call us and we will confirm your specific plan. Mountain View Pain Center is in network with most Medicare Advantage plans, and out-of-area rules are set plan by plan — so the only reliable answer is the one that comes from checking yours.
If Arizona is becoming the permanent address rather than the winter one, moving out of your plan's service area gives you a special enrollment period. Tell the plan before you move and the window opens the month before the move and runs for two full months after it. Tell them after you have moved and it runs from the move for two full months. Either way it is a window, not an open door, so it is worth putting in the diary.
The thing that wastes a seasonal patient's first month is arriving with no imaging, no notes and no record of what has already failed — and being offered it all again from the start.
You have a federal right to your records. Ask your other provider in writing to send them, name us as the recipient, and give them the address. They have 30 days to act on that request, with one 30-day extension only if they tell you in writing. Some states give them less time than that.
What is actually worth requesting: imaging reports and the images themselves; operative notes if you have had surgery; the record of injections — what, where, when, and how long the relief lasted; and the therapy notes, because "physical therapy did not help" and "physical therapy helped for six weeks" lead to completely different plans.
Send it before you fly if you can. Start the request a month out and it will be here when you are.
Continuing is usually better than restarting, and it is usually possible. Four services run here under one roof and on one chart — Pain Management, Physical Therapy, Chiropractic and Acupuncture — so a plan that was split across three separate practices at home does not have to stay split here.
Two practical points if you are on a Medicare Advantage plan. An authorization you already hold has to stay valid for as long as the treatment is medically necessary. And if you change plans while a course of treatment is under way, the new plan has to give you at least 90 days before it can require a fresh prior authorization. Neither of those helps if nobody knows you are mid-course, which is the argument for telling us at the first appointment rather than the third.
No referral is needed to be seen. Same-week appointments are usually available.
These are Original Medicare's rules. A Medicare Advantage plan has to cover at least this much, and may cover more.
Pain Management. Part B covers medically necessary physician services and outpatient procedures. The criteria for specific injections are set regionally rather than nationally, and Arizona's are not necessarily the same as the ones where you spend the summer. We check before scheduling.
Physical Therapy. No dollar limit on medically necessary outpatient therapy in a calendar year. Above $2,480 of combined physical and speech therapy in 2026, claims carry an attestation that the care is still needed — a paperwork step, not a cut-off. Note that the threshold is a calendar-year figure, so therapy you had at home in the spring counts toward the same number as therapy you have here in the winter.
Chiropractic. Original Medicare covers manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation, and nothing else a chiropractor provides or orders — not X-rays, not massage, not Acupuncture, not examinations. It also stops once the condition is stable and further adjustments are maintaining rather than correcting. Many Medicare Advantage plans add to this.
Acupuncture. Covered for chronic low back pain only — 12 weeks or longer, no identifiable systemic cause, not related to surgery or pregnancy. Up to 12 visits in 90 days, 8 more if you are improving, and no more than 20 in a 12-month period. That annual allowance is also a calendar-year figure and does not reset when you change state.
You pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount after the Part B deductible, which is $283 in 2026, unless your plan sets different cost sharing.
Deer Valley, Phoenix · Northwest Phoenix · Peoria · Westgate, Glendale · Chandler · Mesa
Injections and interventional procedures are performed on site at Westgate and Mesa, both of which have fluoroscopy — so a procedure does not mean a separate trip to a separate facility.
See the full Arizona list, read about Medicare Advantage plans in Arizona, check insurance and billing, or send an appointment request.
Will my Medicare work in Arizona?
Original Medicare works anywhere in the United States that takes Medicare, and so does a Medicare supplement. Medicare Advantage depends on the plan: emergency and urgent care are covered anywhere, routine planned care out of area is not guaranteed. Call us and we will check yours.
How long can I be away from my plan's service area?
A Medicare Advantage plan must disenroll a member who has been out of the service area for more than six months. Plans that offer a visitor or traveler benefit can extend that, but not past twelve months.
Can you carry on the treatment I started at home?
Usually, yes — that is the normal case. Get your records sent ahead, and tell us at the first appointment where you are in the plan.
How do I get my records sent?
Ask your other provider in writing, name Mountain View Pain Center as the recipient, and give the address. Federal law gives them 30 days to act, with one 30-day extension only on written notice.
Do I need a referral?
Not to be seen here. Whether your plan requires one before it will pay depends on the plan.
I am thinking of switching plans this autumn.
Open enrollment runs October 15 to December 7 and changes start January 1. The one thing to check first is whether the providers you use are in the new plan's network — ask the plan, and ask the provider. There is more detail on the Arizona Medicare Advantage page.
Everything here describes how the Medicare program works in general. It is not advice about which plan to choose, and we do not recommend plans. For your own situation the authoritative sources are your plan's documents, medicare.gov and 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). Figures quoted are for 2026.
First visit in Arizona? Here is what to bring to a first Pain Management appointment — it is a short list.
Seasonal patients are seen at every Mountain View Pain Center clinic in the Phoenix metro — see the full clinic map, Colorado or Arizona.
