VAX-D Recipients Demand Medicare Coverage for Spinal Depompression

As a retired orthopedic nurse, I find it extremely disappointing to discover that Medicare will not pay for spinal decompression treatments (VAX-D therapy, coded as HCPCS S9090) and yet it pays for “mechanical traction therapy” (CPT Code: 97102) or “mechanical traction for spinal decompression,” a modality defined by CPT coding authorities as “generally used in conjunction with other therapeutic modalities and/or procedures and not as an isolated treatment” . . . and defined by one insurance company, Aetna, as an “application of a modality to one or more areas; traction, mechanical.”

People, we are mincing words here. I submit that VAX-D is certainly a modality, it is mechanical in that it employs harnesses or belts and a mechanized table, and it is most certainly traction, traction that instead of merely pulling on the spine both pulls and allows decompression to occur, the latter being the desired result. In other words, decompression of the spine is the result of the traction as I see it. The definition above, “mechanical traction for spinal decompression” (Code: 97102, which is covered) exactly describes VAX-D which isn’t.

So what’s the problem? Not enough blind studies of the efficacy of VAX-D they say. I say, if that’s what it takes, whoever made the table and the accompanying equipment better get busy! Medicare’s non-payment is but one more example of government and health insurance companies lagging behind medical progress and certainly of the lack of medical knowledge by those who make the rules. STUPID!

Medicare would rather pay thousands of dollars for drugs and other palliative measures to treat spinal issues than fix the problem. I guess big Pharma gets its way again. And you wonder where your taxpayer dollars go?

Support this petition to see if anybody cares. I do!

Thanks,
Pat Brunn Perkins