Types of Massage Insurance

Many health insurance plans now cover massage provided by a massage therapist. Some of the largest managed care organizations cover massage and other complementary therapies.
The state of Washington requires insurance plans to include every category of regulated health-care provider in their provider networks, including massage therapists.

Check with your health-care insurance provider. Once massage therapy is prescribed, you or your doctor may need to seek authorization from the insurer if coverage is not clearly spelled out in your policy or plan.

Personal Injury Protection
P.I.P. is an option you can purchase on your auto insurance. If you are in an accident and you are injured, you will be glad to have P.I.P. coverage. It offers a wider spectrum of health care over most HMOs without so many hoops. If there is a motor vehicle accident, P.I.P covers mainstream Dr. care as well as massage therapy, chiropractic care, physical therapy, post-traumatic-stress counseling, and acupuncture. P.I.P. coverage can be found if:

• You are the driver whether it is your car or not.
  
• You are the passenger.
  
• The person who owns the car has it on their policy but was not present in the accident.
  
• The person who hit you and is at fault. In this instance it is called third party P.I.P. and should be handled with a lawyer involved.
  

Labor & Industry
Washington State Labor & Industry is an insurance plan every employer pays into just incase the unfortunate instance an employee gets hurt on the job. A primary physician must write a prescription for massage. The case worker assigned from L & I must first approve massage therapy as well. After that, six sessions at a time will be approved.

Managed Care Insurance
We provide the billing as a courtesy to our patients thus greatly reducing the stress of paperwork. However be aware that you, the patient, is responsible for payment of services. So the more you know the process and have your insurance information in order, the more likely you can use it hassle free and save yourself any costly or embarrassing circumstances.
Within the state of Washington massage is covered under many different insurance options. Although not all insurances have massage as an option, most do. For massage to be covered, it has to be considered medically necessary (i.e. you had an accident or you are in physical pain, sorry stress doesn’t count) and most policies require a prescription or referral from a doctor. The first step is to call your insurance company to find out the particulars of your plan.

What you need to know are as follows:

• Is a prescription required or does the plan offer self-referral options?
  
• All prescriptions require diagnostic codes and a duration of the treatments for it to be valid.
  
• Does the referral need to be filled by your primary care physician or can a chiropractor or physical therapist fill it?
  
• Is there a deductible?
  
• Is there a co-pay or a co-insurance to be met?
  
• What is the maximum amount allowed for complementary therapy? This encompasses massage therapy, chiropractic care, physical therapy, and acupuncture. This can include maximum visits or dollar amount.
  
• Some policies require a pre-authorization code from the insurance company.