Currently, there are several bills in the Washington State Legislature that affect massage therapists, these two affect LMTs who are insurance providers.

Substitute Senate Bill 6071: This bill would limit the amount of time that health insurance carriers can do “clawbacks.  Currently, health insurance carriers can request repayment for up to 24 months after payment was made to a provider, or up to 30 months if the carrier had to coordinate benefits with another carrier.

The substitute bill changes the 24 months to 12 months and the 30 months to 18 months. This reduction in time allows for better stability for providers. The original bill requested a 6-month limit on clawbacks in both situations, but it was changed in the substitute bill.

This bill passed out of its original committee and now resides in the Senate Rules Committee. For full details go to: https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=6071&Year=2025

Substitute Senate Bill 5845: Health insurance carriers are required to make payment of “clean” claims within 30 days of receipt and all claims must be paid or denied within 60 days. 

This bill requires health insurance carriers to make payment of clean claims within 30 days and carriers have 21 days to request additional or missing documentation to process a claim.  When the documentation is supplied, the carrier then has 30 days to pay. If a carrier fails to process claims according to the timeline, then the carrier must pay interest on these claims.  The substitute bill also provides for better clarity of process and definitions of terms.

This bill passed out of its original committee and now resides in the Senate Rules Committee. For full details go to: https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?Year=2025&BillNumber=5845

At the time of this blog posting, both bills are still in process in the Senate -- they have until February 17 to be passed by the Senate.