Insurance Billing Manual
for Massage Therapists
The Complete Insurance Billing Manual
for massage therapy is now online and
available for free. I wrote this back in 2005 so some of it is outdated
and I am not updating this material currently. If you are looking for more
current information please see the Massage Insurance Billing Manual by
Vivian Madison Mahoney. She has been doing this much longer than I have
and I get the idea that she actually likes it! I personally do not.
The reason I have started offering this for free is that the bulk of the
manual is about using a HCFA form for billing. Starting in March 2007,
there is going to be a new form required by most insurance companies called the
CMS 1500.
I also have seen so much controversy over the issues involved with insurance
billing, I feel that it is important that people begin to understand just what
is involved in these issues and how it affects the profession so that we as a
profession can work together with the insurance companies if we so choose.
I also have started to work my way out of doing insurance billing in my
practice for various reasons:
- Here in WA as a contracted provider with HMO's and PPO's, they don't pay
my going rate and I lose money when I take insurance clients which means I
have to see more clients. At this point in my career after 17 years,
that isn't what I want to be doing.
- The integrity and responsibility issues are very confusing to work with.
Clients abuse the system thinking that their insurance company owes them
rather than taking the steps and paying for the healthcare that they need.
Insurance for the most part does not cover stress related issues.
People in pain due to stress are usually overworked, over committed and
don't take care of themselves. How does this help them?
- Insurance companies require us to "fix" and show improvement or we won't
get paid. The process of "fixing" rather than healing is getting too
stressful for me to deal with.
- Insurance companies are reducing their allowable fees, reducing policy
limits and benefits.
- Doctors, PT's, Chiropractors are opting out of the healthcare system.
- Our health care system is a mess. Do you as an individual want to
be a part of that? Do we as a profession?
- The only way to make money in insurance billing is to stick with L&I and
motor vehicle accidents where the insurance companies will pay more.
Here in WA there is already one company who has joined a network which means
your fees are discounted. It is only a matter of time before this
spreads to the rest of the auto insurance companies in my opinion.
I also feel that it is important for everyone to know how to bill insurance
companies and learn how to do it so they can then see for themselves. I
think the more people do insurance billing the more they see that it is not
something that they want to be doing.
It is time to start defining our profession and the meaning of medical
massage - which no one seems to want to tackle. It is because most
do not understand what is at stake and what the effects of becoming a part of
the medical profession will do to our profession. Just follow the links
below!
