That is fine. It will keep the oldsters occupied, instead of perching at McDonalds or local cafes. Usually acupuncturists, like chiropractors, keep doing acupuncture on patients who do not respond. Thus it keeps people occupied and out of everyone's hair. I had a one day a week clinic at the VA about ten years ago and don't think I ever ran across a single patient who improved with it, yet the acupuncturist insisted on the vets doing the "treatment" a couple times a week. The acupuncture gal was working on contract and was pulling over $500K from the VA, so it was a good racket for her. She would scoff at "quackery" like stims and surgery, which was very entertaining. I recall her doing acupuncture on a guy with cervical stenosis, even after the guy was losing bowel and bladder function. I was surprised that her acupuncture did not cure his myelopathy, as it worked so well for everything else. It is a situation of "if all you have is hammer, everything looks like a nail".
Obviously the two largest studies (one in the US and the other in Europe) showed that acupuncture is superior to PT alone, but equivalent to sham acupuncture and PT. That sham is a nurse randomly poking the patient with toothpicks. SPINE every year usually runs the "efficacy vs effectiveness" article in which they debate whether acupuncture should be offered when we know it is equivalent to sham, but have sham responders. The general concensus is go ahead and do it if it does not cause financial trouble. Oldsters similarly will consume vitamins and herbals as well, so they waste their money on other sources of quackery.
Acupuncture is just one of the many quack treatments offered today. Oddly, when compared to massage and manipulation, massage works better and has a longer duration of effect.
Looks like it will keep the oldsters out of everyone's hair for a period of time and give them something to do. I would doubt that there will be an impact on pain management per se, as the only responders are those who respond to sham. Chiropractors will probably add this as a service in their offices, so it will appeal to the same crowd.