Tuesday, March 24, 2009

All About Massage Therapy Insurance

By Janette Lindz

Are you experiencing aching back and muscle pains? If you have aches and pains that are more than just the result of the usual work stress then you might want to go for a little massage therapy. As with most therapeutic techniques, you probably want to know if you can take advantage of massage therapy insurance.

Massage Therapy Insurance

Most people want massage therapy to be covered by massage therapy insurance and it only seems right. Numerous research studies have shown that massage therapy truly can provide health benefits for various muscular conditions. Various massage techniques can help relieve pain, promote healing of some conditions and improve the general well being of individuals.

Many insurance companies now provide coverage for massage therapy. There are of course, differences in coverage depending on your insurance company. Your insurance company may have coverage rules that include the kind of therapy, the number of sessions and the expertise of your therapist. Depending on the results of the evaluation, your massage therapy insurance may cover part or all of your expenses.

If you want your insurance company to cover your massage sessions, you must provide detailed documentation of your therapy needs and sessions. A doctor's prescription is necessary as well as a detailed description of what kind of therapy you need, how often you need it and the progress of your sessions.

Insurance Billing

Before, there were therapy clinics took care of customers' massage therapy insurance billing. This added convenience made sense then because patients would definitely want to return to therapists who could handle everything including the hassles of insurance billing. These days though, more and more therapists are drawing away from the task of insurance billing for a number of reasons.

Massage therapists with small clinics and few or no assistants are the ones who are most inconvenienced by massage therapy insurance billing. Not only do they have to juggle busy schedules but they also need to brush up on insurance policies and codes, fill up various forms and process billing requests with companies. Sometimes they would have to wait for a few days or weeks before receiving a response from an insurance company.

In some cases, the request for payment may be denied or they may receive insufficient compensation. In this case, they would have to go right back to the client to explain why there are problems with billing. This is a lot of hassle and some therapists simply do not feel that it is worth it.

Processing Insurance Yourself

One would be lucky to find an reasonably-priced therapy clinic who is also willing to do the insurance paperworks. In some cases though, you would have to do the work yourself. Although massage therapy insurance is something that should definitely be widely provided in the future, you would have to content yourself with the hassles of the present system. - 15246

About the Author: