It is with a heavy heart that I make the following announcement:
Limited availability for massage covered by health insurance
Due to low reimbursement and an increased administrative burden, I have made the decision to slowly discontinue seeing patients covered under their health insurance policy for massage therapy.
In the late 1990s, health insurance coverage for massage was unheard of. We all wished that one day, massage would become a reimbursable medical treatment. Nothing has made me happier than working hard to make this happen. However, my overall well-being has suffered after four years of turning appointments around quickly to better suit the medical massage model. I have been forced to face the fact that the insurance model for massage therapy is flawed and failing. Providers of massage who are sole-proprietors are not being reimbursed enough for their services and are sometimes even losing money when they take on a new insurance patient due to the increased administrative burden. It makes no sense that I continue doing business with the companies that have not streamlined their provider services for alternative care therapists. The administrative efforts that are necessary to bill insurance for certain companies are overwhelming and not feasible for providers without front-end staff to help. Hopefully, provider services will someday be streamlined to allow for alternative care providers to verify coverage and submit claims online. Some companies have already invested in doing this. As soon as administrative burdens decrease, we will be happy to make more accommodations.
For now, we will continue to see as many insurance patients as our schedule allows, but we will slowly begin to phase out our participation with certain companies over the months to come.
Mahalo to all of you for your continued support!
Much Love,
Sonia Beauchamp
The Haleiwa Massage Muse at Integrated Massage
and Deep Tissue Therapy
in Waialua, near Haleiwa, on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.
-285-3009