Massage Therapy
1/2 hour
Additional time (can be added to any of the above session lengths for a custom-length session)
Additional time (can be added to any of the above session lengths for a custom-length session)
$35
Structural Integration
Discounts
Insurance Billing
Insurance I can bill directly:
Providence, HMA, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Regence. Auto insurance.
Why it’s hard to find massage therapists who accept certain health insurance companies that say they have massage benefits:
Some insurance companies that list massage benefits among their offerings structure the benefit in a way that is extremely hard to actually use. They do this by making themselves impractical, or even impossible, for most providers to work with. Some pay the massage therapist rate that is only one half to two thirds of the going rate for private pay. By the time a massage therapist paid their billing person, there’d be so little left it’s not worth their time. The other way is by not updating their provider roles, or accepting new providers, for years.
Over time, providers on the “accepted” list retire, move, etc. Meanwhile, new providers who would like to work with the company can’t.
What you can do about this:
There is a partial workaround, though it involves a little extra paperwork for you. It’s called super-billing. The massage therapist gives you a detailed receipt, and you submit this to your insurance company for reimbursement. Unlike your massage therapist, you’re not splitting the money with a billing person, so your savings are greater than their earnings would be. If your insurance company pays $40 an hour, you get the full $40.
If you need regular bodywork, these savings can really add up. Often clients consolidate labor by waiting until they have a stack of receipts and submit these together to the insurance company for their refund.
When choosing insurance, if massage coverage is important for you, ask these questions:
How many treatment units are allowed per session? A treatment unit is 15 minutes. Sometimes, a company will only cover 3 or 4 units of the same treatment type, per session. (So if you get a 90 minute massage, you will need to pay for the last half hour out of pocket) How much does the company reimburse per unit? Remember: in order to bill insurance, the practitioner is either paying a billing person, or putting significant time into paperwork and communication. If the reimbursement rate isn’t high enough to allow for that, you will have difficulty finding anyone willing to bill that insurance. Does the company determine how much treatment it will cover by the number of appointments, or by a dollar amount? How many sessions a year will the company cover?