Feb 07
5
Can a massage therapist bill insurance companies?
Currently only Florida and Washington state make it mandatory for insurance companies to bill your health insurance for massage therapy services.
In WA State, massage therapists are allowed to become contracted insurance providers. In Fl, the law states that insurance companies must pay for massage therapy to be covered when referred by a physician.
In other states there may be a few insurance companies that are now paying bills from massage therapists.
In all states, massage therapists are able to bill auto insurance when there is an injury caused by a motor vehicle accident and massage therapists are able to bill Labor and Industries (or workman’s compensation) when there is an injury on the job.
Currently the state of insurance billing is questionable. Here in WA State, we are paid less than $75.00 per massage. When we were first able to bill insurance companies, I was paid almost $100 per session. The allowable fees have steadily decreased and the clients benefits have steadily decreased also.  Auto insurance companies who once paid whatever was billed for are now becoming part of networks which means the allowable fees are being determined by the networks and we are getting paid less. It is only a matter of time before the rest of the insurance companies start this procedure.
The insurance companies are also in the process of definining what the definition of medical massage is and they are ruling out various modalites of massage and setting criteria to be a provider.
The future of insurance billing looks grim. While you may think that it is good for the profession to be able to bill insurance companies and that it will help you build your practice, you may be better off focusing on building a cash practice.
I wrote a guest editorial for Massage Magazine in 2005 addressing this issue.
You can also see Deane Juhans article in Massage and Bodywork Jan issue.
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