I am a licensed Massage Therapist that is Mobile. I was wondering how can I accept Health as a payment for a massage from my patients/clients?

 

  • Scooch 9:04 am on February 9, 2010 Permalink

    There are textbooks created to help understand how to properly set up your practice to accept insurance payments. The three main categories you need to determine are
    1. Motor Vehicle personal injury
    2. Workers Compensation injury
    3. Major Medical Health Plans/Insurance

    The first is the best coverage, the second is good coverage and the third is cumbersome. Medicare/Medicaid are a waste of time, unless you are in a medical office that does the billing for you.

    Your question addresses the third category. Depending on the state you are in and/or the insurance company that is offering benefits, it may be worth the extra time and effort to accept these plans for billing.

    The following site leads to a book that is adequate for understanding most of what is needed to set up and begin accepting insurance. Give yourself 3-6 months of study and development of necessary forms before taking on your first Health plan patient.

    In any of these cases, the patient will need the following before insurance will even consider payment:
    1. Physician’s Referral/prescription (MD, DC, DO)
    2. Medical necessity
    3. Plan: number of sessions, duration, frequency, goals
    4. NPI number & completed CMS-1500 form for billing

    This book will teach you all about how to set up insurance billing in your practice. There are others out there, but this is very informative for the price.

    It is possible to develop a medical massage practice going to people’s homes, but it will take some time to develop it.

    http://shop.manualtherapyoffice.com/product.sc?categoryId=3&productId=10

  • G.A.H. 9:04 am on February 9, 2010 Permalink

    Wow I think that would be awesome, my suggestion is ask the school where you worked on and earned you license maybe…if not there then contact some local chiropractic practices and see if they could explain how their LMT’s get paid through insurance, because you may have to go through another organization for that to happen, or a physical therapy office or something like that, best of luck to us all, ciao.

    GAH

  • Diane A 9:04 am on February 9, 2010 Permalink

    This could be difficult to do, as most insurance companies require an application type process so that a business relationship is established; then a medical need must be meet and documented and charted. Then you must process the clients billing process & do the forms & paperwork. This may be more time-consuming than you are willing to take on as well as the medical necessity. You also must deal with claims that are denied and a delay in payment (can be months) as well as capitation (they will pay you, not what you bill, but what they have set up). Contact a a large insurance company & see if someone in the claims system can talk to you about this. You may not be able to bill directly under a MT license but need a medical one. Good luck!