In some parts of the country the situation is different. I believe more coverage is available in California, for instance. Sometimes acupuncture does need to be repeated. Essentially, the goal of treatment is to correct the underlying imbalance, which is the causative factor in the person's pain. And this is not always possible.
Some people do require intermittent follow up in order to maintain a result.
For instance, I have a patient who has back pain which resulted from degeneration of the lumbar disks and arthritic changes in the joints of the spine, together with muscular contraction in the low back. Now this person's pain is largely under control, because the muscles and soft tissue are no longer inflamed and no longer compressing the nerves, causing back pain and leg pain. But the degenerative changes to the spine are not cured and leave this person susceptible to recurrences of pain, for which she has periodic follow up treatments. From a Western scientific standpoint, the research is now being done, in fact, here in the Boston area, looking at acupuncture's effectiveness in the treatment of depression. For a long time, acupuncturists in Chinese medicine have routinely treated depression, we believe with a great deal of success.