RE:RE:RE:issue with laserLAZERR00 wrote: Gustoes wrote: LAZERR00 wrote:
Here's the issue with the laser industry It is not reimbursed by most insurance players, which makes it difficult to sell to a huge portion of medical facilities. With copays etc increasing patients are not going to want to pay additional money for laser treatments. Its a hard sell
It's actually viewed as an opportunity in my eyes. Cold laser therapy for a lot of treatments are gaining a good reputation and when a tipping point is reached in the medical insurance arenas where they finally concede that cold laser is a better option when it comes to $$$$$$$$ .. cold laser is demonstrating effectiveness/reduced long term cost vs other treatments and it is only a matter of time before it is widely covered. This is where a spec play like TLT gives you an amazing entry into a market which could explode. Even as a standard commercial non covered treatment, it is a growing market and the TLC2000 could really create a large buzz in a couple years.
lol thats nice, cold laser has been around since 1960s and has plenty of publication behind it yet is still not covered which means Insurance companies are no where close to reimbursing clinics for use of cold laser. Without reimbursement clinics are not going to purchase expensive equipement like a cold laser unless they are under a huge corporate umbrella. I would never personally purchase one for my own clinic on the sole fact that it is not reimbursed and is very costly, 16,500$ with no way to really recooperate that loss unless you want to charge separately which again is not realistic. A used TLC 1000 sells for 11,000. I do not see a huge market for laser production. If insurance changes then of course sales will change but i do not see that happening in the foreseeable future
Reimbursement is spotty, not non-existant. New CPT codes are coming. There are currently codes you can already use and that carriers have no issue with, you can also use 97039 with a written report, or just contact the carrier and confirm LLLT coverages. Like I said, it's an early entry opportunity for what the science shows could be the future of treatment for many ailments. We should all want what is best for client injuries.. which ultimately could be our injuries or injuries of our loved ones... and insurance companies should be interested in what saves them money long term. It took the vatican 350 years to admit Galileo was right... if it takes insurance companies 80 years to figure out LLLT is the future of treatment for inflamation, tissue damage and pain mangement... then we're almost there. I can't really evaluate your perspective on justifying cold laser for your clinic because I don't know your market but big US cities should be able to make a small fortune for those that want the best treatments, they'll pay for it. There are many that will vouche for LLLT treatments including some on this board and they gladly pay for it just as many pay for physio, chiro or massage treatments where they don't have coverage or in excess of coverage.