Alternative Billing Codes and Yoga: Practical Issues and Strategic Considerations for Determining “What is Yoga Therapy?” and “Who is a Yoga Therapist?”

Alternative billing codes (ABC codes) have been developed to identify alternative medicine, nursing, and other integrative health care services, including unlicensed practices such as Yoga. Using the lens of ABC codes to examine what it would take to become recognized in this system highlights many of the issues Yoga therapy will have to address to be viewed as a professional practice offering therapeutic services. Among these issues are organized representation, standards, and a mechanism for national accreditation. For discussion purposes, illustrative standards for Yoga therapists are sketched out in the appendix (Editors’ note: See this issue’s Editorial for further thoughts on the development of Yoga teaching and Yoga therapy standards in the United States).