Massage Insurance Billing
Do we even want to be a part of the medical model and accept insurance as
payment?
This is one of my favorite topics. I am also torn about selling an
insurance billing manual even though I have such strong feelings against
participating in managed care, but my opinions are so controversial that I
believe that massage therapists need to know how to bill insurance companies so
they can become more aware of just what is happening in the profession as a
result of working with insurance companies.
We all are hooked into this idea that the medical model is essential for the
future of the massage profession.
From what I understand of managed care it is really no place for healing.
It is one of fixing symptoms.
The insurance industry bases all of their decisions on the fact that they
need to make money for the company not what does the patient need to heal.
Managed care is really another word for managed cost.
While there are some divisions of massage that are playing directly into this
idea that they can fix people with the techniques they know and spent so much
money on learning those, the concept of the therapeutic relationship gets tossed
aside to promote the ego of the massage therapist being able to do just that -
fix others.
Is it the technique that fixes and takes away the clients pain or discomfort?
While it may seem so at times why is it that there are many different styles and
techniques that can achieve the same result? Which one is better for
healing carpal tunnel? Which one will insurance pay for? The
insurance companies are determining that for themselves right now...we no longer
have a say in defining our profession and scope of practice.
What if taking away peoples pain and discomfort were a dis-service to the
person? What if the pain is supposed to be a message that they are to
awaken to something deeper within themselves, a call to become more connected to
their body and should?
I really believe that buying into the medical model will be the end of
massage as an art form and a tool for healing.
The only way out of this is to take more responsibility for our practice and
our work by opting out of working in the medical profession. When we can
choose to operate outside of managed care we can become a more service oriented
business that we were originally designed to be. It will force those in
the profession to become wiser business people and learn to market themselves to
be successful. We will be forced to talk about what it is that you really
do with a client inside the closed doors and be able to explain and show it to
potential clients and educate clients as to what it is that you really do.
People will really come to know and accept the profession and the licensing
and legislation issues that we are faced with will be set aside to get back to
the real issues we are faced with in practicing massage. Massage
Therapy as a profession will be recognized as a inherent necessity of being
human and awakening to our true Self.
