When people have a work-related injury or disease, we help them get the health care and rehabilitation services they need. This may include the services of an acupuncturist, a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, or a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner.

Key guidelines

Acupuncture services can be provided without prior approval from WorkSafeBC provided these guidelines are followed:

• The injured worker must have an accepted claim with us.
• Services are clinically indicated for the accepted injury and there is a focus on active rehabilitation and return to work.
• An injured worker cannot receive concurrent treatment for the same injury.
• Approval is required for any treatment beyond eight weeks.
• Only treat the area of injury accepted on the claim.
• Treatment time is at the discretion of the practitioner for what is clinically appropriate for the injury on the accepted claim.
• We do not pay for more than one treatment per day.

If all of the above requirements are met, you may provide eight visits within the first eight weeks from the date of injury as outlined in the fee schedule.

Physicians and physiotherapists can perform acupuncture as part of their regular treatment modalities. See more information for:

• Physicians
• Physiotherapists

When treating an injured worker, bill WorkSafeBC for your services directly, according to our fee schedule, and do not bill the injured worker. Learn more about submitting reports and invoices.

Checking a worker’s claim status

You can use our View Claim Status tool to check an injured worker's claim status with us.

View Claim Status

You can also check an injured worker's claim by calling our Teleclaim team.

Need more information?

We want to make sure you have all the information you need to work with us as a health care provider. If you have questions, please contact us for help. You can also download a copy of our contact information.