As I've mentioned in a prior GR blog, CPR is required for anyone renewing their massage license after September 1, 2021. The new requirement states, "Maintenance of certification in American Heart Association CPR or equivalent".

WSMTA has received questions about a) whether the class has to be in-person or not and b) what does equivalent mean?

The Format of the CPR Class:

Like the ethics requirement, the CPR requirement does not call out a specific mode of education which means that you can fulfill the requirement by taking an in-person class, an online class or a hybrid of in-person and online.  If there are other formats for taking CPR, then it would be acceptable as well.

What Does Equivalent Mean?

The American Heart Association’s CPR is based on the resuscitation knowledge of the “International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation”.  The American Red Cross is an equivalent organization and their CPR methods are based on the "International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation".  If you take a CPR class from another organization, find out what their CPR methods are based on.  More than likely you’ll find that it’s based on one of these two sets of guidelines.  If it is, then it will be equivalent.  Often you can find this information on the website’s FAQs page or on the page that talks about their CPR.  If not, then call them.   If it is not based on one of these two organizations’ resuscitation methods then you’ll need to do some homework to determine if it is equivalent or not.

To read our other blog article on CPR, please click on the following link: https://www.mywsmta.org/gr-news/10443398

WSMTA wants to make sure that you have access to reliable information with which you can create an educated and informed response for yourself, your massage business, your family, friends and your community.

By now most of you are likely aware of Proclamation 21-14 COVID-19 Vax Washington. Here is a link to the Proclamation: https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/proclamations/21-14%20-%20COVID-19%20Vax%20Washington%20%28tmp%29.pdf 

We encourage you to read the Proclamation in its entirety, paying particular attention to pages 6-7 which reference massage therapists in particular.

Another document that we encourage you to read in its entity is the FAQ that was just recently released by the WA Department of Health. Here is a link to the FAQ: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/505-160-VaccinationRequirementFAQs.pdf

If you receive email notifications directly from DOH you should have seen these documents in your inbox. 

Since there are differing views amongst the WSMTA board as well as many of our members regarding this topic, WSMTA is choosing a neutral stance. We encourage our membership to avoid the temptation to rely on hearsay and false narratives and to do the research for themselves using reliable and science based resources which will empower them to make the best decision for themselves, their business, their families, friends and communities.

WSMTA Government Relations Program

There is a little known tax that will start for all Washington state employees on January 1, 2022 for the “WA Cares Fund”.  Each employee will be taxed $.58 of every $100 for long-term care insurance.  This is an employee tax, something that comes out of your paycheck, not an employer tax. 

Starting January 1, 2025, employees who have been paying into this fund will be eligible for benefits.  To be eligible, you must be vested in the fund and there are quite a few requirements.  The maximum benefits that any employee can receive is up to $36,500 – about 3-6 months of care, depending on the facility or level of care provided.  It is possible to opt out, but to do so you need to have your own personal long-term care insurance plan in place by November 1, 2021.  If you are self employed and want to opt in, you can do that as well.  For further details, go to: http://www.wacaresfund.wa.gov/

As Washington State reopens, there are a lot changes that have happened.  However, for healthcare providers, there has been no change for us regarding masking and social distancing.  Masking for healthcare providers is still required in our treatment rooms or clinics as is social distancing.  When the new requirements came out earlier in June in preparation for the June 30th reopening, we started to work with the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) to get clarity.  Please click on the following link for a one page summary of what the masking and social distancing requirements are and how this applies to massage therapists.  Should you still have questions, at the bottom of the document is the contact information for the L&I contact person to follow up with.

06/30/21 State Masking/Social Distancing Requirements for LMTs

For a sign that can be posted in your massage room or clinic, please click on the following link:

Sign -- Face Masks Still Required

Please click on the link below for a sign that can be posted in your office for your clients/patients to see.  It indicates why face masks and social distancing are still required in the massage room or clinic. 

Sign -- Face Masks Still Required

For more information on masking and social distance requirements, please click on this link:

063021 Masking and Social Distancing for Massage Therapists

The Office of the Insurance Company (OIC) has published information on their website to help healthcare providers make contact with a health carrier to determine which of their plans are eligible or ineligible for 99072 PPE reimbursement.  It still requires us to make contact with the health carrier, so there are no short cuts. To look at the page, click on this link:

How to determine health plan fully-insured status

Some insurance carriers are starting to make payments on just submitted billings for 99072 and some are even going back and paying on older submissions.  If you haven't seen it yet, they are also changing their denial of claims for 99072 to specifically state that denial was due to ineligibility.

For our last blog on CPT Code 99072 PPE Reimbursement,  please click on this link:

Part 2 – PPE Reimbursement (CALL TO ACTION)

If you have been using CPT code 99072 to be reimbursed for PPE, you will probably have noticed that you are not being paid for it.  If you look at the EOB’s, you will generally see a rejection notice that states: “payment is included in the allowance for another service/procedure”, or something similar to this.  Healthcare providers across professions are not being reimbursed at this time.

Senate Substitute Bill 5169 (SSB5169) enables all healthcare providers to seek reimbursement for personal protective equipment during the state of emergency related to COVID-19. This bill became law and went into effect on April 16, 2021 when the governor signed it.  Healthcare providers treating patients in state-regulated commercial health plans who have incurred costs for PPE are able to bill the newly created CPT code 99072 and be reimbursed $6.57 per patient encounter.

The two important things to remember about using 99072 to bill are:

• It only applies to state-regulated commercial health plans which do not include: PIP, ERISA (federal plans such as medicare supplemental plans, or self-insured plans like Boeing or Microsoft), Taft-Hartley plans (trade-union bargained plans) or L&I.

• Only bill exactly $6.57.  Billing anything else gives the insurance companies an excuse to deny payment.

If you are unsure as to whether a client/patient’s plan is eligible for PPE reimbursement, ask your client/patient to contact their insurance company for a “summary plan description” which will indicate the set of laws that regulate it.  By law, the insurance company has to respond to the patient’s request, but it does not have to respond to the same request if it comes from the healthcare provider.

CALL TO ACTION!

If you are being denied the PPE payment, our only recourse is to file complaints with the Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC).  Without these complaints, nothing will be done by the OIC to require commercial health insurance companies to pay.  Each healthcare profession is asking its members to file.  To file a complaint, go to:

www.oic.wa.gov

On the left of this page, below the picture is a link in a green field for “File a complaint or check complaint status”, click on that and then click on the “File Complaint” button on the next screen.  To file a complaint, you need to provide specific information about your complaint.  Provide claim number and date of service, never include the patient name as the complaint becomes public record.  Complaints with patient names will be rejected.  Provide a statement of having billed 99072 for $6.57, that it was rejected and provide the rejection reason.  State that the insurance company is not following the SSB5167 signed into law on 4/16/21 and ask the Insurance Commissioner to make the insurance company follow the law and reimburse you.

Once you have filled out your first complaint and submitted it, if you file others, the form will remember the information from your prior complaint and fill it in, so all you have to do is update the information (claim number, service date, insurance company name etc) for the next complaint. The more complaints you file, the greater the weight is on the Insurance Commissioner to act.  Please only include information for one massage service provided on each complaint.

Thank you for supporting your profession!

To learn more about the details of SSB5167, read a prior posting by clicking HERE.

Annual Business Meeting and Continuing Education

• June 27 2021 at 9:30AM - 2:30 PM
• Zoom attendance is limited to 100 participants.
• Free to members, must be a member to attend. To become a member JOIN HERE
• 4 Continuing Education Credits

Annual Business Meeting

• Results of the 2021 election of Directors.
• Reports from WSMTA Clinical Practices, Government Relations, Membership Programs, and Treasurer. Our team of volunteers have been working especially hard for you and the profession this last year.

4 Continuing Education Presentations

Topic: Sustaining and Growing Your Business in Tough Times: Thinking Outside the Box During the Pandemic

In this live, interactive webinar our presenters will present creative healthcare business models. Thinking outside the box, they will share the benefits and risks of various models as well as the underlying values that inspire them.

Our presenters, from an array of healthcare practices, will inspire you to consider new ideas to grow your practice or recover from the effects of the pandemic with these topics:

• Direct Primary Care (Concierge Service) by Dr. Richie
• Understanding the Alphabet Soup of Supplemental Insurance Benefit Options - Taking Control of How Your Healthcare Dollars are Spent by Jessica Bradley 
• Widening Your Horizons and Adding Additional Services to Your Practice with Leslie Korn
• Developing and Running a Membership-Based Wellness Spa by Nicole Chryst, LMT
  

On 9/1/21, revisions and additions to the regulations in the Massage Therapy WAC Chapter 246-830 will go into effect.  One of the changes that will affect licensed massage therapists the most is that CPR will be part of our CE requirement to renew our licenses.

Historically, we only needed to have completed CPR in massage school to obtain our initial massage license. However, starting 9/1/21, it will also be a requirement to renew our massage license.  You can see the new CPR CE requirement at: WAC 246-830-475.    The new CPR subsection states:

(2)(c) Maintenance of certification in American Heart Association CPR or equivalent. A maximum of four hours is allowed per reporting period.

It is also a requirement in many insurance contracts, if you are an insurance provider.  We have always been able to use CPR for CE, but now it is a requirement.

At the time this article was written, online, classroom and online-classroom hybrid options were available and were easy to find on the internet.  If you live in a more rural area, check with your local fire stations and hospitals to see if they have resumed in-person CPR classes.

One thing about CPR classes, at the end of class you get a card showing that you passed, but it doesn’t indicate the number of hours you attended to obtain your certificate.  Our suggestion is to create a form and take it with you.  Make sure it has all of these details pre-filled in as indicated in CE WAC 246-830-475 subsection:

(4) A massage therapist must provide acceptable documentation of continuing education upon request or audit. Acceptable forms of documentation include, but are not limited to: 

(d) Other formal documentation that includes the following:

(i) Participant’s name;
(ii) Course title;
(iii) Course description;
(iv) Date or dates of course;
(v) Number of hours;
(vi) Indication of being an in-person course, self-study as referenced in subsection (3)(c) of this section, or distance learning as referenced in subsection (3)(f) of this section;
(vii) Instructor’s name or sponsor organization name or names;
(viii) Instructor or sponsor contact information; and
(ix) Signature of the program sponsor or course instructor. The self-study allowed in subsection (3)(c) of this section is exempt from this requirement.