Maggot Therapy Receives Full Funding Under Health Insurance Benefits

Recognition of maggot therapy for use and treatment in wound therapy and healing, has earned major support through the American Medical Association as a viable form of treatment. Modern medical procedures are able to benefit from the use of medicinal maggots, especially to treat damage caused by evolving bacteria strains such as MRSA (Multi-drug Resistant Staphylococcus aureus). MRSA is a strain of staph infection bacteria that is resistant to broad spectrum antibiotics, such as penicillin and cephalosporin. In other words, there is no way to prevent the spread of bacteria and infection of human flesh, without removing it. This is where medicinal maggots come to play, they help to “clean” the flesh by removing infected and decaying tissue, thereby preventing the spread of infection.


True to the fact that maggots are able to naturally debride unhealed wounds, most people don’t understand the mechanics of their natural talent to “clean” the flesh. Contrary to the popular belief that maggots are only effective because they “devour” dead rotting meat, they actually don’t eat the rotting flesh. So how do they remove the bad flesh? Maggots are able to excrete special digestive juices that are powerful enough to break down solid rotten material, and turn it into a liquefied state. Once the liquid mess is wiped and cleaned away, a cleaner and bacteria free surface is revealed, promoting an optimal healing environment.


Many patients are wary to allow maggots to crawl around on their exposed flesh wounds, and this may be because of all the hyped media. Whenever you think of the word “maggot”, what image is conjured up in your mind? Perhaps a rotting corpse in a coffin, with maggots crawling in and out of the eye sockets. Or maybe even the rotting carcass of previous road kill, with nothing but skin and bones left, and a few maggots hanging off of a few strands of hair and fur. This is certainly not true, especially in a hospital setting. You will absolutely not expect to see any maggots down in the hospital morgue, only in closely monitored treatment room sessions.


One of the benefits to using maggot therapy is the elimination of drugs for use in healing, since some bacterial strains can’t be treated with antibiotics and prescription drugs and medications. It is no wonder why most hospitals are implementing more uses for maggot application for treating wounds, in order to promote successful healing results.


Proof that maggot therapy is gaining acceptance as a form of treatment is the approval by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, along with the American Medical Association, that they have confirmed reimbursement policies and guidelines for wound care through use of “medicinal maggots” and “maggot therapy”. In turn, health insurances should cover or at least include an option for this type of service as an insurance benefit. Insurance companies have been known to turn their backs on medicinal maggots, up until now. Medicinal maggots were able to be used in saving infected limbs, which probably would have been scheduled for amputation if not saved. This is a dramatic difference of a few thousand dollars for drug based therapy, versus less than a few hundred dollars for maggot therapy. Patients are also more accepting to the fact that they are able to opt for a less invasive form of treatment.


Not all types of maggots are used in maggot therapy, care is put into the screening process for appropriate specimens to use in treatment. Usually, the popular variety used in treatment today is the young larvae of the green-bottle fly species. Only clean and healthy maggots are used, and care is put into administration to the patient. This science breakthrough is not something that’s new to the knowledge of science, it has been around for many centuries, as far back as the Napoleonic Wars. It was also a favored application in treating wounded soldiers who were injured in World War I, up until the popular use of antibiotics in the 1930’s.


In a strange turn of events, more resistant strains of bacteria have evolved, and can’t be destroyed through the use of strong antibiotic medicines. Scientific technology has reverted back to this conventional form of treatment, not to mention natural and more economical.