Is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Doctor Approved?

Over the years Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) has been used in treatments for many different types of conditions. Conditions such as Lyme Disease, Stroke, Cancer, Autism, and various immune disorders and many others. A frequently asked question I receive as a doctor is if HBOT is insurance approved? 

Hyperbaric therapy is insurance approved for 14 medical conditions in the US.  So yes, it is doctor-approved. These 14 indications rely primarily on both oxygen or pressure to help sick patients recover. Some countries have up to 80 different conditions approved for HBOT.  Others have as few as 5.  It is quite the range! 

In the US, 8 of the insurance approved conditions can only be treated in a hospital setting. These include acute traumas, carbon monoxide poisoning, and necrotizing (bad) infections. HBOT can get people out of very challenging situations and this is where Dr. Scott first experienced the power of HBOT.

The rest of the US  insurance-approved conditions can be treated in outpatient settings using medical grade (hard) hyperbaric chambers. These conditions include diabetic foot ulcers (saving patients from amputations), radiation injury from cancer treatment,  chronic bone infections, sudden hearing loss, and at-risk flaps and grafts in plastic surgeries.  HBOT for these conditions is vastly underutilized but when used for the right patients, it is a powerful healing technology. 

There are at least 50 other conditions where HBOT may be helpful and there is good research backing them. Most of these conditions are also treated in hard hyperbaric chambers but there is also emerging evidence that soft chambers can also be helpful, especially for neurological conditions and neurocognitive optimization. You can read more about different types of chambers in our previous article Different types of Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers.

Right now, soft chambers are only insurance-approved for acute mountain sickness but very likely more is to come!