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Patient pay directly or 3rd Party Reimbursement

I teach in a massage school and my students are interested in hospital based massage. I'd like more information on the business model for working in the health care system. Do MsT's get paid by the hospital (wages or commission?) or by the patient directly or by insurance? Or is there a combination pay system? It seems I hear of lots of volunteer massage but few who have a business plan that includes hospital massage. Thanks in advance for your wisdom!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Erica Olson on January 25, 2010 at 1:19pm

There's a lot of information at the Hospital-Based Massage Network over here. I was dinking around there the other day and saw that one of the reference books they list under "getting started" has outlines for various ways of implementing such a program, including pay system and employee vs. IC ideas. I don't remember which one it was off hand, but there are some great synopses of the various books on there.

Permalink Reply by Tamara L Luffy LMT, CNHP on January 26, 2010 at 9:10am

I worked in a Hospital clinic for 11 years. It was a new clinic and they were advised to set up the therapists as independent contractors. We received cash, credit, checks and I choose to take insurance, but I was responsible for billing.