Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

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This is what I do for work. It's called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS for short). It's a therapy that involves magnetically stimulating your neurotransmitters after finding your brain's motor threshold. What does it do? It cures depression. It's pretty new to the medical world, so most insurance companies only cover it based on "medical necessity." -_- I spend hours on the phone talking to them just to see if they can cover one patient.

However, it also can help with symptoms caused by bi-polar disorder, migraines, or anxiety. It's really a helpful tool. Patients come in once a day for 30 days, and sit in this chair for an hour. I talk to them, or put on a movie, or play 20 questions with them. When it's over, they get up and leave. After the thirty days, EVERY patient I have had say they feel much better. Insurance companies don't make any money off of such therapies. Ergo, they refuse to cover it. The medical office I work at hardly makes any money off it either, but we do it for the patients. They really need it. Some of them are so fallen apart, and I've seen such huge, dramatic changes in their lives after they finish the therapy.

So I was just wondering... What do you guys think of the whole situation? I understand that insurance companies need to make money, but the patients need help and sometimes this is the only thing they can use. Most of the patients I see can't afford TMS, so they need the insurance companies' help. Do you guys think this is okay? Am I just worrying too much? It's a real problem here, I think. I would just like some input on whether or not you guys think it's okay for insurance companies to do this.

(I also do techie stuff, insurance verification forms, and billing sheets at the office, but this is my main thing lol).

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I mean, I've seen patients come in who can hardly keep from breaking down crying in the chair they're just so depressed. I also do speech therapy while they're in the chair to help a bit, too. And then, when they leave, their marriage is strong again, their relationship with their kids is blossoming, etc.

I call my patients about 4 weeks after to see how they're doing lol.

It's a hard argument.. but at the end of the day, insurance is a business, so they have to be profitable to survive. In an ideal world, they'd be able to do what was best for everyone AND make money, but that will never happen, and so they can't afford to support treatments like this just yet. If it becomes a more widely-accepted treatment option, they may feel more willing to pick it up in future.. It's always hard with new things -- they don't want to take the risk.

On a personal level, I think the treatment sounds interesting.. It's certainly could be considered a nice alternative to popping pills every day. I'd be curious to see how the longterm effects hold up. Is it something a person has 'refresh' periodically? (Go in for follow up treatments because the symptoms come back after a while.) Or is it something that sort of retrains the brain so that the problem is less likely to reoccur?

I've never had a patient come back in for more therapy. I check on them four weeks after therapy, and they almost always do really well. I give them my card and tell them to call me if things start going down again, but no one really calls lol. Some call to thank me, but no one has had to come back to the office yet and I've been doing this for almost 6 or 7 months.

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And the lady that I replaced in the office (she retired lol) never had a patient come back or call the office while I was in either so lol. She had been doing it for over a year.

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Originally Posted by SlenderrMan

I've never had a patient come back in for more therapy. I check on them four weeks after therapy, and they almost always do really well. I give them my card and tell them to call me if things start going down again, but no one really calls lol. Some call to thank me, but no one has had to come back to the office yet and I've been doing this for almost 6 or 7 months.

And the lady that I replaced in the office (she retired lol) never had a patient come back or call the office while I was in either so lol. She had been doing it for over a year.

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Well, that's cool that the results at least hold for that long. It's certainly easier than popping pills daily, but I would be curious to see the research they did on potential longterm effects of the treatment (before it got approved for usage). For instance, was there any risk of developing brain tumors or cancers associate with the treatments? Did patients wind up with any neurological disorders, aside from the ones they initially had, that were caused by the magnetic shifts? Etc. (I'd think magnets would be fairly safe all things considered, but the brain can be a tricky thing. Who knows.)

Well TMS was approved in 2008 by the FDA. No one has reported any such side effects, and almost everybody tells that it was extremely helpful. I research this shit all day so lol.

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Originally Posted by SlenderrMan

Well TMS was approved in 2008 by the FDA. No one has reported any such side effects, and almost everybody tells that it was extremely helpful. I research this shit all day so lol.

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Well, hey, maybe it'll catch on then and the insurance companies will have to adjust their position. You never know.

-_- I really hope so lol. I also hope all these Spammers read this and LEARN SOMETHING. Because this is important stuff, ya know? This could change the nation, or even the world.

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It's called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS for short). It's a therapy that involves magnetically stimulating your neurotransmitters after finding your brain's motor threshold

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You lost me right there. What does "brains motor threshold" mean? Is it how much you can scramble someones brain before screwing them up too bad?

Does that mean you could scramble someones brain with a TMS machine?