Financial Support for Yoga Therapy: A Montage of Possibilities

While Yoga therapy is not usually directly covered by health insurance, there are a wide variety of other possible sources of financial support for students. Among these are tax-sheltered health care accounts, Yoga therapy provided by licensed health care providers and billed under appropriate CPT codes, services provided by a Yoga therapist working with a licensed health care provider such as a chiropractor and billed under that practice, and Yoga as part of integrated programs such as the Dr. Dean Ornish diet and lifestyle programs and Jon Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness-based stress reduction program. This article provides a practical discussion of each of these options by experienced practitioners. Also provided is a legal opinion regarding the nature of expenses for Yoga therapy, tax-sheltered health accounts,and "qualified medical expenses," as defined by the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS).