Massage Envy charting path into "medical massage"

[HannahHAZARD]

I found this on another forum and found it interesting and wondered what the good folks over here thought about it. I am posting verbatim:

"Don’t kid yourself about ME going away. They are here to stay like it or not. I know the VP of marketing and they are looking into expanding into the Medical Massage area. This is very preliminary, but it is in the works. There is a big part of the medical massage market out there, that won’t bill insurance directly because we can’t afford to wait 2-3 years for reimbursement. ME has the financial backing to do just that. They are currently working on the PR campaign to get in to the Physician’s office to get referral programs established. ME, like it or not, is going to force us, a practitioners to focus our energies and business savvy to compete. I am concerned, since 85% of my practice is working with auto accident or work comp patients. ME has the presence to go directly to insurance companies and become the preferred provider."

 

[Emmy]

I will continue to work with private pay clients, and to educate those who ask about having insurance pay on the realities of handing over their care to the insurance companies. If the insurance pays, the insurance can say what I treat, how I can treat it, and for how long I can treat it. "He who pays the piper calls the tune." If the client wants to work with me directly and make the decisions on what is working for him/her, the way to retain that freedom is to come to me and pay me him/herself. I am happy to give them copies of their SOAPs and anything else they need if they would like to turn it into insurance themselves and hope for reimbursement. My costs will stay lower that way, too. If a person is determined that insurance should pay for all their care, that is fine. They can go to an MT who does insurance billing. If that is ME, that is okay with me. There are plenty of massage clients to go around. I offer something nobody else in my area does. If ME comes to town, they will certainly be offering some things I don't offer. It's going to be okay.

 

[Steve E]

Cool.

 

[Bobb]

:iagree:

Very well said Sharon.

I sometimes think it would be nice if we had a ME in our area to refer those last minute, gotta do it right now because I'm only in town for 2 hours calls. Last minute calls don't bother me, it's the fact that they get MAD at you for not being availible on their schedule that gets under my skin!

 

[Raynah]

We've got M.E.'s in our town - a lot of them ---- within a 10 mile radius of my office, I think there are at least 3. As far as I am concerned, "big hairy deal".

I am in the business of getting people well, fixing people and making them happy. I know a lot of MT's don't like the "getting well and fixing people" part, but that really is what I do. So, that is my client base. Those I can't help, I will happily continue to work with if they want, but I try and refer them to those who can.

If M.E. wants to delve into the medical massage practice, so be it. It won't change my policy of having the client get re-imbursed from the insurance company and pay me up front. My blood pressure gets to high when I deal with the insurance companies, so I won't change to that anyway (it's a personal thing).

I would say I'd be interested to see if they can provide a team of experienced therapists who are willing to work the long hours fully providing medical massage. I'd also be interested to see how they know when they have a good "medical massage" MT and when they end up with a bad one. And, when they do end up with more than a few people saying they can do this work, what will happen when these "wanna-be's" injure a client? It's bound to happen with a company of that scale.

I am sure some people will thoroughly blast this post, but, in the interest of conversation, please take time to discuss the thoughts and not the poster.

 

[kori p]

I'd also be interested to see how they know when they have a good "medical massage" MT and when they end up with a bad one.

I'd be interested to know if ME is working with David Luther and/or AMMA on this. DL has been active in trying to get insurance companies to reimburse only when an MT is certified in his particular brand of "medical massage." (The original reasoning for this was, to be able to prove to the ins. companies that MTs were well-trained, by showing a certification. Either by accident or by design, it turned circular and is in danger of becoming "We'll only reimburse for this one certification - Buy my certification to get reimbursed!")

Anyway, if ME is serious about this, they may well be looking into the most vocal reimbursement proponents, including those who offer certification (prominently, DL.) And then if ME were to require this certification as a way to be more likely to collect ins. reimbursement, I think there would be a lot less trouble securing appropriate therapists.

This is all speculation on my part, and I don't know how much of this would be corporate-mandated and how much would be left up to the individual franchise owner as far as vetting MT ability anyway.

 

[MarinaFerrari]

ME and the AMMA? Isnt this like lex luthor and super man working together?
I hop[e having another big company on our side for this issue will help our perdicament.
That being said: what possibel affect on the alternitive medicine feild would there be if ME would join in? Weve talked about how ME affects the massage world in general by providing cheap, less effective massages to the masses for less which leads some buissness away but doesnt hurt the private Mts a whole lot the ALt-med area is a completely diffrent story.