Our Sliding Scale

What is your sliding scale?

Our sliding scale is $30-$60 for a first visit, and $25-$50 for follow up visits. You decide what you can afford. (It’s not like tipping in a restaurant.)

Ok, but that doesn’t tell me how much to pay. I’m a bit confused. 

Acupuncture is a dose-specific medicine. If a doctor prescribed a course of antibiotics for an infection you wouldn’t expect the first couple of pills to clear it up. It’s similar with acupuncture—if you don’t get enough, it’s not going to work for you. You should pay the amount that will allow you to get enough acupuncture to get long-term relief – whether that’s enough treatments to clear up an acute condition, or regular enough treatment, longterm, to manage a chronic condition. Your acupuncturist will make a recommendation so that you know how much acupuncture you will need.

Money is an awkward and sometimes painful topic. I’m still confused.

Our mission is to make acupuncture available to as many people as possible. We’re trying to prevent at least some people from being priced out of acupuncture. We don’t get external funding to “fill in” any economic gaps that the sliding scale does not provide for. This clinic runs solely on sliding scale acupuncture treatments. So we trust you to choose the place on the scale that is right for your circumstances at this point in time. And we will never require income verification.

Please say a bit more to help me decide how much to pay.

If you are on OW or ODSP, if you struggle to maintain access to needs such as health care, housing, food, or child care, are living paycheck to paycheck or are in significant debt, you should definitely be paying on the lower end of the sliding scale. 

If you have financial security, own property or have personal savings, are able to pay for “wants” and spend little or no time worrying about securing necessities in your life, you should be paying on the higher end of the sliding scale. 

If you’re somewhere between those two points, with some money stress but also some expendable income and are regularly meeting your basic needs, then you should pay somewhere around the middle of the scale – as long as that will allow you to get enough acupuncture to get long-term relief.

Some of this text was adapted from Worts & Cunning’s writing about their sliding scale.