Insurance Billing Manual for Massage therapists
Issues that affect the future of massage and insurance billing
While more and more insurance
companies are allowing massage therapists to become providers and are paying for
massage therapy services, I find it to be a mixed blessing. On one hand we are
being recognized as health care providers. On the other hand our work is being
limited and controlled by companies who don’t really know much about health and
healing. They are telling us how long our sessions should be, how often we can
see the client, for what duration, for what conditions and how we should be
treating them. In some ways, we are being forced
into joining with insurance companies. There are a lot of people who will not
go for massage just because it is not covered in their policy. Some will only
go for the allotted number of treatments and stop after that. This is usually a
result of people not understanding what massage is really all about and really
valuing such a service. Educating people to take responsibility for their
health and well-being is essential. It is not just about “fixing” that shoulder
problem or back problem.
As a profession, more research is
needed to determine if we really want to be jumping into the medical arena and
becoming a part of managed care. Do we want to continue being able to bill for
MVA’s , L&I/WC? What is it saying about our work? Our profession?
I feel we are responding to a
need of the community rather than determining what it is we want to be doing.
We feel pressured to accept insurance so that we don’t lose clients and so that
we will get a steady flow of new clients. We are jumping into a field that will
further require us to “fix” clients and limit healing. The medical community
and insurance world are constantly struggling with financial issues and what
they will cover, what will be paid and when. We feel that we have to become a
part of this network to be accepted by doctors and clients – but do we really
need this? What will give us more credibility and provide massage therapists
with the tools for success? (I have more thoughts on this online at
www.thebodyworker.com,
http://www.thebodyworker.com/guesteditorial_118.pdf,
http://www.thebodyworker.com/insurance_billing_massage_therapy.htm)
I also believe that there is much
more to healing than “fixing” clients symptoms. Healing requires teams of
support so that the client can look at the deeper issues of what is really
causing them to overwork, not take care of themselves and then end up sick or
injured. We all know that there is much more to musculo-skeletal pain than
meets the eye. Repressed emotions and spiritual conflicts are often the cause
of pain. We build up physical armor to protect ourselves from the stress around
us and in us.
Being a part of networks and
billing insurance companies that are based on the medical model of healing pain,
really limit healing and the ability of the client to find their wholeness. It
takes us away from being of service and forces us to “fix”. Moving away from
managed care and billing insurance companies will allow us to emerge from the
shadow of “caretaking” and come into the light where we can be accepted for who
we are rather than what the insurance industry wants us to be. It is possible
to build and maintain a practice that is 100% cash and also be successful!
The way out of “caretaking” and
“fixing” and being a slave to insurance companies is through supervision.
Supervision is the process of looking at ourselves first to discover our own
wholeness and learn to stay aware of it as we work with others who are looking
for wholeness themselves. It is the process of becoming aware and staying alive
while others are in their story of pain. Our stories are where we have come
from and what builds our defenses and limits us. It is finding out what our
stories are so that we can know when our story is having us rather than knowing
that we are in our story. Building a community peer supervision groups and
seeking out individual supervisors where we can share our stories and come to
know our stories better, are the key to getting away from managed care and
building a profession that is accepted by the public.
It is the key to creating
successful practices – a practice that is financially rewarding, emotionally
connected and spiritually alive!
