Tapping Is Now $0 With Original Medicare. Here's How NeuroTap Health Works.

I want to tell you about something I never thought I'd get to write.

Twenty years ago I maxed out my credit cards to film a documentary about tapping, because I had watched it work and I needed to show people. For most of those twenty years, tapping lived in the "alternative" corner of the world. Something you found on your own, paid for on your own, and often kept to yourself.

That changed this summer. Tapping is now part of a Medicare program. Through a new company called NeuroTap Health, adults with Original Medicare can go through a guided tapping program at $0 out of pocket. No subscription. No copay. No credit card, ever.

This page is the plain-English guide: what NeuroTap is, who qualifies, why it costs nothing, how it's different from The Tapping Solution app, and how to start. If you already know you want in, the button is right here.

What NeuroTap Health is

NeuroTap Health is a new company I founded to bring tapping into clinical care. It's separate from The Tapping Solution, built on the same technique, and held to a higher standard than anything we've done before: a scientific advisory board chaired by the Chair of Psychiatry for Mass General Brigham, with members from Harvard, UCLA, and the sitting President of the American Psychiatric Association; a medical director who authored a landmark meta-analysis on tapping for anxiety; and outcomes measured at every single session.

The program itself is simple. Short guided tapping sessions, about 10 to 20 minutes a day, in a set order that builds week by week. You rate how you feel before and after each one, so you can see the change over time instead of taking anyone's word for it. It's delivered through the NeuroTap app on the phone or tablet you already have. If you can press play, you can do this.

It's built for adults living with three things: anxiety, depression, and chronic muscle and joint pain. Those are the areas where tapping has the deepest research and, from what we've seen over 18 million rated sessions in our own app, the greatest need.

Why it's $0 (and why that's not a catch)

Fair question, and it's the one I get most. Here's the honest answer.

Medicare has a new program called the ACCESS Model. In plain terms, it's Medicare paying for digital health programs that help people with certain conditions, the same way it pays for other care. NeuroTap Health is a participant. So for eligible adults with Original Medicare, Medicare pays for the program.

Normally there would still be a coinsurance, the small share the patient pays. NeuroTap has chosen not to collect it. That's what makes it $0 out of pocket for the program itself. (Care you receive outside the program, like medications or visits with your other providers, is billed under your normal Medicare rules, same as always.)

Two more things I want you to hear clearly, because I know how "free" sounds. NeuroTap will never ask you for a credit card or bank information. And it never sells your data.

Who qualifies

You qualify to apply if all of these are true:

• You have Original Medicare (Parts A and B). Anywhere in the US.
• You're living with anxiety, depression, or chronic muscle and joint pain, like ongoing back, neck, or joint pain.
• You're an adult. You do not need to be 65. If you have Original Medicare through disability, you're just as eligible.

A brief screening at enrollment confirms the program is a fit for you, and Medicare runs its own eligibility check. There's nothing for you to figure out on your own. You don't need a doctor's referral, either. You can check your coverage and enroll yourself online.

Not sure which Medicare you have? Look at your card. If it's the red, white, and blue card that says "Medicare Health Insurance," you have Original Medicare. If your card shows a company name, like Humana, UnitedHealthcare, or Aetna, you likely have Medicare Advantage, which NeuroTap doesn't include yet. More on that below.

How NeuroTap is different from The Tapping Solution app

A lot of you reading this already use The Tapping Solution app. So let me draw the line clearly.

The Tapping Solution app is your everyday library. Hundreds of meditations for whatever today brought: a rough night's sleep, a stressful conversation, a craving, a wave of worry. You pick what you need, when you need it.

NeuroTap is a guided, step-by-step program. It's built for a specific purpose, supporting adults with anxiety, depression, or chronic muscle and joint pain, and it walks you through sessions in order, week by week, with your progress tracked along the way. It lives in its own app, and it's $0 out of pocket for eligible adults with Original Medicare. It also includes 250 sessions from The Tapping Solution app, so nothing you love is missing.

If you love The Tapping Solution app, keep it. NeuroTap is something more, not a replacement.

If it's for someone you love

The messages that stay with me come from people who found tapping late. One of the first people through the NeuroTap program put it better than I could: "Sad at how long I didn't know this. 70 years."

If you're reading this and thinking of a parent, a spouse, or a friend on Original Medicare, you can set it up for them. NeuroTap has a path built for exactly that. Go to neurotap.com and choose "I'm helping someone I love." You'll be walked through it.

If you have Medicare Advantage or another plan

NeuroTap launched with Original Medicare, because that's what the ACCESS Model covers today. If you're on Medicare Advantage or another plan, tell NeuroTap your plan and get on the list. They'll let you know the moment there's a path for you. In the meantime, The Tapping Solution app and the free Tapping World Summit are still here for you.

If you're a clinician

If you care for patients with Original Medicare who are living with anxiety, depression, or chronic pain, you can offer them NeuroTap at no cost to them. The clinical framework, the evidence base, and referral information live at neurotap.com/health.

How to start

Three steps, and you only do the first one.

1. Check your coverage. Go to neurotap.com and choose the option that fits: it's for you, it's for someone you love, or you're a clinician.
2. NeuroTap checks eligibility. They confirm Original Medicare coverage and run a brief screening to make sure the program fits.
3. Start the program. Download the NeuroTap app on the App Store or Google Play, press play on your first session, and follow along. Nothing to set up.

Questions people ask

Is NeuroTap therapy?

No. It's a guided self-help program built on tapping. It isn't a replacement for therapy or medical care. Many people use it alongside the care they already have, for support between appointments.

Do I need to be good with technology?

Not at all. It works on the smartphone or tablet you already have, and a calm voice guides you through every step. (One note: Amazon Fire tablets use their own app store, and NeuroTap isn't available there at launch.)

Is there real science behind it?

Yes. Tapping, clinically called EFT, has more than 300 research studies, including randomized trials. One found an hour of tapping cut cortisol, the body's main stress hormone, by 43%. Every study, including the criticisms and the null results, is cataloged in our public research library.

What if I don't qualify?

Then everything The Tapping Solution has always offered is still yours. The app, this blog, and the free Tapping World Summit. Tapping has never required permission from anyone.

You've waited long enough

I know how this looks. A technique where you tap on your face with your fingertips, and someone tells you it can help with the worry or pain you've carried for forty years. I'd be skeptical too. I was.

But nobody has to take my word for it anymore. The research is there. The doctors are there. And now, for the first time, the coverage is there too, so cost is never the reason someone doesn't try.

If that's you, or someone you love: you've waited long enough.