Payment required at time of Service
What’s this? More policies? Before I get into the new policies about payment I’d like to cover a little background. About five years ago when I started billing clients’ insurance for massage services, I had zero experience with the process and no precedent, mentor or other business to follow. Up until now, my procedures regarding insurance have been to bill clients after I personally send a claim for them to their insurance.
This usually followed my taking extra time making inquiries on the clients’ behalf regarding their coverage details, and after waiting anywhere between a few weeks and several months (depending on my case load) I would send them a bill after insurance accepted/denied or partially covered services and reimbursed me. Sometimes the process was so lengthy that I’ve had clients move by the time I have a bill ready for them and they never paid their bill. In the meantime, I didn’t have to worry about payments at the time of services quite so much because I didn’t have a monthly lease or anything financially pressing where waiting for payment became an issue (aside from the runners that got free massage.)
One of the many reasons my husband and I moved to Condon was to be able to live comfortably in a house we bought with our small family of three. His work salary was enough for us to afford this and my income as a business owner was able to be managed well even with a modest profit. Years later, after numerous changes to the world economy and public health, I was still making a tiny profit as a business and was grateful having the opportunity to work from my home where I gained a wealth of knowledge and experience as a massage therapist.
Since my family hadn’t grown (not counting cats or chickens) and our needs were still being met I didn’t see a need to look for an office space to work outside of my workspace from home. I try not to share personal information of my family life on my website and social media but I feel like it’s necessary to explain the transitions I’m going through as a business and why I am raising my rates and enacting new policies and procedures.
During the summer I made a visit to my sister in Wisconsin and her family after the birth of her fifth child. What was intended to be a short visit became more when there was some familial issues that had arose. After coming home via plane I packed my bags again but this time drove to Wisconsin with plans to stay for a couple months and work as an LMT there while my sister set up a new place to settle her family as she separated from her husband and became independent.
This unexpectedly developed into a cross-country journey back to my home in Oregon. It took days of travel and impromptu hotel stays with a party of 8. My sister was traveling with her children whom ranged in age of 11, 5, 4, 1 year, and newborn. My husband arranged childcare for our daughter while he flew to Wisconsin where he then rented a vehicle to fit my sister’s family. The move was not pre-planned and there was a good amount of tears as the miles between their past and future grew further apart.
There were nights where we had to shove furniture against the doors and devise or own ways to keep windows in the room safe from an escapee autistic 4 year old child. There were so many bathroom stops, snack breaks, diaper changes and bottle feedings! The vehicles were stuffed with children in their bulky seats and belongings stacked like jenga blocks in the trunks. While were were traveling, westward, my parents in Condon moved furniture and shuffled our belongings in our house to accommodate their family moving in with us. This meant that my massage office had to go.
The treatment room was converted into my husband’s workspace and office waiting area converted into my daughter’s bedroom. I had to temporarily quit working as I didn’t have anywhere to massage and my family came first. We had to secure all the windows and doors in the house to make it safe for an elopement-risk child. We rushed to baby and toddler-proof the house cupboards, doors, bathrooms. My sister and her kids had to start completely fresh with little more than some sentimental items and summer clothes. This included health insurance and healthcare providers and loss of funded childcare options! Since September, my family has grown to 9 and while it’s crowded and there’s never a quiet or dull moment , there’s a resiliency to the kids and their ability to adapt to a new and sometimes stressful situation. I’m proud and thankful for family and supportive community that’s been welcoming them to Condon and I hope they will be able to find a house this year in which to rent. Unfortunately with limited resources as a small town, there are no options for childcare and housing for her yet.
While I am back to working massage again at my new location in Condon at the Condon City Hall building on 128 S Main Street, I have prioritized running my business more efficiently as I have a lot more at stake now. For those whom are used to me billing their insurance for them and billing later, I suggest you contact me ahead of your appointment so we can discuss the new changes. I am willing to transition to payment due at the time of service for those repeat clients but for all NEW clients I cannot afford to do this. I am not walking away from insurance but am just changing my procedures. For more details I will post later on the superbill I make for clients for their records and reimbursement.