CAM benefits expand

American Specialty Health, a health-benefit plan provider that promotes complementary and alternative therapies, in 2005 increased its coverage to offer more health-care services to American workers.

ASH plans are now available to businesses with more than 50 employees in Texas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Hawaii and Virginia. This brings the number of states where ASH offers coverage to 21 plus the District of Columbia.

“With the growing consumer demand for complementary health care and employers’ increasing needs for cost-effective health coverage, our company is stepping in to meet a need that is often unfulfilled by mainstream insurers,” said ASH President and CEO George DeVries.

ASH’s supplemental benefits packages provide services such as massage therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic, smoking-cessation programs and dietetic counseling. ASH contracts with hundreds of providers in each state, and has a nationwide provider network of 30,000 practitioners.