The Cost of Prolotherapy
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The Cost of Prolotherapy
Ross Hauser, M.D.
For people without insurance, many pain therapies are too expensive. Physical therapy and chiropractic therapies can run about $200 per session. Prescription pain medications can be several hundred dollars per month. What if you don’t have insurance and the doctor is recommending an EMG/NCV test ($1200) or an MRI ($2500). What about if Arthroscopy has been recommended ($13,000) or surgery ($25,000)?
Many people that I see work for themselves. They do not have good insurance plans. These people love Prolotherapy. Most joints cost $250 to treat per session. Most joint/ligament/tendon injuries are treated once per month for three to six months. So say a person gets one joint treated every month for four months, they will end up spending a $1000 for the Prolotherapy over a four month period. Yes, there is the $250 new patient consultation fee and I’ll probably want them on $100 worth of supplements every month. The total cost may be in the order of $1650 for a chronic knee problem, for instance. But the good news is, often that is it! No more treatments. Have a nice life. During the time the person is getting Prolotherapy, they can still work and earn money. So if they get Prolotherapy over a four month period, that is a total of 120 days. $1650 divided by 120 days ends up costing the person about $13 per day for 4 months to rid themselves of their chronic knee pain.
While this is not inexpensive by any means, the patients I see come because their pain often is keeping them from working. So often after the first Prolotherapy treatment, they get some pain relief and can get back to working. Granted $13 per day of their work will end up going for the Prolotherapy, but that beats a $2500 MRI or the time they would need to be off work if they had an arthroscopy or surgery done.
Physical therapy and chiropractic care can work wonders on some people, but the therapy can get expensive. If you have to pay out of pocket, it can quickly add up to thousands upon thousands of dollars. If there is a ligament, meniscus, or tendon tear or injury involved, most likely this type of treatment will not permanently cure the person of the pain. People who have to pay the bill themselves want to get a treatment that they believe will cure them of their pain. Many of these people get Prolotherapy.
Because Caring Medical does so much Prolotherapy, we are able to keep our costs down. For many it is actually cheaper to get Prolotherapy at Caring Medical then by the Prolotherapist in their own state. We have heard people spending thousands and thousands of dollars for Prolotherapy at a clinic closer to their home, but without results. We commonly see patients who feel they are good Prolotherapy candidates come to Caring Medical for a second opinion about Prolotherapy and end up seeing us for their care.
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