Dear massage patients,
I am taking a leave of absence from my massage practice. It starts this Saturday, February 25, 2023. I don’t know when it ends.
I am very proud of my efforts to expand my treatments rooms, add LMTs, and meet the needs of our community. Now I have to look at the hand dealt to me, and set myself some boundaries for my own health. The truth is, I’m exhausted, financially and emotionally.
I just read an article that I will quote for you, with a link to it’s entirety, below. The surgeon general explains my situation. Even he shares my complaints:
Second, we must reduce administrative burdens… outpatient providers spend nearly 2 hours on the electronic health record and desk work during the day for every 1 hour spent with patients — a trend widely lamented by clinicians and patients alike.3
TWO HOURS! I thought I was crazy, or really bad at accounting— nope. This crap takes forever. Even the Surgeon General says so! And you might wonder, “secondly”… What is First? This is his first solution:
Addressing health worker well- being requires first … ensuring that they receive a living wage.
Massage therapy in-contract rates have not changed in twenty years! As a result, you cannot find a massage in your network because your insurance does not pay living wages to LMTs, or provide them effective management. For Movement Intelligence, this means—thanks mostly to the low pay / high BS factor of Premera, Aetna, and Kaiser— that I am: CURRENTLY billing insurance; still haven’t been paid for dozens of massages; and am still clearing administrative road blocks in order to even press the send button on many service dates. I am not designed to be, nor as resourced as, a nonprofit business. I’m all for community service, but I know none of you fault me for taking a break from this messed up system.
