Many of my patients express their frustration that massage therapy generally is not covered by their health insurance, yet the health benefits seem tremendous for them. I believe that the growing trend of discontent with lack of coverage for massage therapy is not just limited to patients, but from health practitioners as well.
What is even more unfortunate is that sometimes health care practitioners rarely fully lay hands on patients even for office visits and evaluations anymore. As a part of most healing modalities in the past, the simple touch therapy of examining and treating the patient imparts a level of healing that is now becoming lost in modern day medicine.
Many of my patients joke that doctors these days don't even put their hands on the patient anymore except for a cursory exam at the first visit or unless absolutely necessary. It is unfortunate that along with declining time allowed with each patient, even the simple but effective practice of laying of hands on patients is slowly becoming lost as well.
Even as recent as just a few decades ago, the laying of hands and massage therapy or manual therapy was considered a normal natural part of medicine. In more recent times, massage and manual therapy is seen as more of a luxury rather than a necessary part of healing and wellness.
This is an unfortunate change in Western healing philosophy since studies show that massage and manual therapy are beneficial for many medical conditions and health concerns, which is likely the reason why manual therapy is still considered an important part of healing in most other parts of the world.
Based on numerous studies as listed below, massage and manual therapy is in my opinion an essential part of health and healing based on improvement of circulation, muscle function and stress reduction, just to name a few.
Nowadays in medicine, we are all well aware of how stress affects our body negatively. We see time and time again that patients who are stressed, anxious or depressed tend toward more negative health outcomes than those who are feeling balanced, calm and positive.
Studies indicate that manual therapy likely helps with stress reduction as well as other aspects of physiology. But even taking those other physiological benefits aside, the reduction of stress alone has tremendous health benefits to patients, as related to more positive outcomes to overall health and daily functioning.
So, my recommendation to everyone reading this article is to stop thinking of massage or manual therapy as a luxury. It is well worth the investment on a regular basis if you can afford it. It is likely worthwhile to double check with your insurance company and ask whether you have some coverage within your physical therapy coverage, which many of my patients were not aware of and were pleasantly surprised.
My second recommendation is to find a physician who still uses the healing modality of touch in the clinic. Frequently, just simply laying hands on a patient during an exam allows the physician to both heal and diagnose all in one motion.
I am a firm believer that the therapeutic alliance between a patient and a health care practitioner is stronger when there is a respectful level of healing touch involved in treatment and diagnosis. In order to achieve an accurate level of diagnosis, we were taught in medical school to obtain at least 90 percent of the diagnosis from the patient. In order to do that, we would need to lay our hands on our patients to fully evaluate and diagnose them... and that is what I would recommend that you look for in your physician.
Overall, I agree with my patients that insurance companies do not cover for this vastly beneficial healing modality enough. Not only do they not allow physicians more time with patients for visits (short visits are necessary in order to keep a clinic financially afloat based on the current system), but frequently they do not cover for hands-on therapy such as massage or manual therapy. Unfortunately then, it is left to us to pursue this topic with our physicians and our insurance companies and see if there is coverage hidden in the fine print of the physical therapy coverage.
If there is, I highly recommend that you utilize the services and not wait until you have longstanding chronic pain, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome or hypertension, just to name a few adverse consequences of longstanding stress and discomfort.
I like to frequently remind my patients that our body is not cut off at the neck; such that what is in our mind does affect our body, and what is happening in our body does affect our mind. So, why not make use of a healing modality that seems to treat both our mind and body?
Ultimately, if you have to put in some leg work on your end to figure out an affordable way to achieve regular manual or massage therapy, either through your physical therapy coverage or an affordable massage clinic in your neighborhood, in the long run, your mind and body will both be better off for it.
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Flickr photo by Nick Webb
References:
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