WA Massage Therapy Network

20 things to do in 2020 for the Massage Therapy Profession in WA State

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2020 – the Year to Get Involved

  1. Get more people to the Massage Awareness Day at the capital in Olympia to talk to legislators and their staff and provide chair massage. ( Could we be a bigger hit than potato day?) February 11, 2020, Tuesday
  2. Look into options for creating an accountable care network to see if one could help solve the many issues we are faced with.
  3. Look into options for creating a Union of massage therapists for employees and for sole proprietors.
  4. Create a letter writing campaign to our local representatives to share with them the stories and struggles of dealing with insurance companies – things like the low pay, long time to process prior authorizations, the fact that Prior authorizations are denying benefits already given in people’s plans, the fact that many insurance companies customer service representatives do not understand that a prescription is needed for all care and that the companies who are buying plans and giving them to their employees do not understand the benefits. (Many tell their employees to use the massage therapy benefits for maintenance massage when it is NOT covered.)
  5. Letter writing campaign to the Office of the Insurance commissioner to explain the issues stated above.
  6. Create a handout for clients about how massage therapy benefits work and include ideas to give to their HR department to use when negotiating insurance plans.
  7. Volunteer for the Political Action Committee – www.wamah.org
  8. Contribute to the PAC – www.wamah.org
  9. Get involved with one of the local networks or start a local network in your area. Getting together face to face will be an important part of the future of the profession here in WA.
  10. Volunteer with one of the associations in WA State – AMTA-WA or Washington State Massage Therapy Association. Both need help in gathering information and getting it out to everyone in WA State.
  11. Go to the Board of Massage Meetings. February 21, 2020 Tumwater; May 15, 2020 Kent; August 21, 2020 Tri-Cities ; November 13 2020 Kent. Sign up for the newsletter to keep up to date.
  12. Volunteer to be on the Board of Massage.
  13. Set up a meeting or go to a meeting with your local districts legislators and talk to them about the issues we are facing in WA State.
  14. Get involved with organizations and people who can help move the profession forward like the WA State Health Care Authority (who creates healthcare plans for Uniform Medical , Bree Collaborative, State of Reform ( healthcare policy).
  15. Look into the political race for Insurance Commissioner. Kreidler has been the insurance commissioner for 20 years. There is currently one other running against him – a libertarian named Anthony Welti.
  16. Figure out what to do about the issues we have with insurance and companies telling members that they don’t need a prescription for massage (which means it does not have to be medically necessary), members being uniformed about how prior authorization works, and ???
  17. Have the insurance carriers explain medical necessity more clearly for us and provide that to their members.
  18. How do we get massage therapy covered for anxiety and depression since it is one of the areas where we have the strongest evidence that massage works.