Relax and Heal with Gary Gammon LMT, LLCC – Insurance

Common wisdom has often been quoted that the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. But in the case of this new health care I think it might be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But the jury is still out on that one. However, since we still have the current beast to deal with lets go with that.

Having dealt with health Insurance companies on the provider end I can tell you it is a royal pain. It seems as though it would be easier to pull teeth! (But only if THAT molar is covered and you have the forms filled out in triplicate, once you have called for the 6th time to get authorization, on a Tuesday under a blue moon (sarcasm intended)) They do everything they can to make it as difficult to get treatment covered. Then sometimes they contact you 6 months later and say “oops” we weren’t supposed to cover that, please send the money back. As an LMT accepting insurance I can tell you it is a sandspur under my saddle. But I rationalize it by telling myself that some people simply could not afford to get the care any other way.

In case you haven’t read the last 96 articles I have written in St. Cloud in the News. I firmly believe in the ability of massage therapy to help your body heal and grow stronger. Massage in some cases is fluffly and soothing and in my work is deep (not harder) and relieving. Comprehending what Body Balancing Massage Therapy can do for you is experiential. You can listen or read about trigger points and myofascial restrictions and lymphatic drainage. It all come to reality on the table when you feel it and you have an “AHA!” moment. You can feel the change in your body and remember what it was like before. That is why I take insurance, suffer the indignities of slings and arrows of the health insurance companies. To help you.
So stand up straight, take a deep breath, drink a tall glass of water and get a massage. If you have a RX I can help with that too!
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Relax and Heal with Gary Gammon LMT, LLCC
“HEY! Maybe my health insurance will cover me for a massage?” If you are reading this article you either already know or suspect the benefits of massage therapy in your health. You also understand that there is value and benefit to using MT in improving and maintaining your health. You know the benefits but are curious as to whether your health insurance will pay for it. Here is how to find out if your health insurance covers Massage Therapy.
First of all your insurance carrier is only going to cover medically necessary treatments not fluffy spa stuff. You should call them ahead of time to save yourself time and confusion. Quite simply ask your carrier “Do you pay for Massage therapy to treat “your condition”. If they do you will want to find out if there are any limitations. Is it for as many treatments as you can in 2 months or 10 treatments a year? Does it have to be preapproved? Do they have LMT’s in network or can I see one out of network? Is there a co-payment?
All insurance carriers (PIP or health ins) are going to require a physician’s prescription. This prescription is going to have to state that the Rx is for “massage therapy to treat…(your pathology)” with a diagnosis code. Then and only then does it become a treatment. “Treatment” is a specific medical term with a specific medical meaning. It is also important for certain types of Medical Massage that they have specific educational qualifications and initials such as LLCC for Lymphedema treatment.
Massage Therapy is an amazing treatment for a wide variety of hurts and sicknesses and is designed to support your body’s natural method of healing. I have encountered many people who opted for a surgical solution even though they preferred the manual therapy approach only because of the out of pocket expense. But health insurance may cover the massage therapy approach. The only way to find out is to ask.
In the mean time Stand up straight, take a deep breath, a tall glass of water and get a massage. Your body will thank-you for it!

The room spins off its axis, only nothing is moving. Your stomach lurches and the world feels like it’s upside down! No this is not the latest video game or an assessment of politics, its vertigo (although,…the politics thing…)! It happens without warning and there seems to be no protection from its world spinning effects. It hits you when you least expect it, and it’s all you can do to hold on till it passes.
The western medical definition of vertigo is: “is a type of dizziness, where there is a feeling of motion when one is stationary. The symptoms are due to a dysfunction of the vestibular system in the inner ear. It is often associated with nausea and vomiting as well as difficulties standing or walking.” Causes can range from “ear rocks” (not to be mistaken with rocks in your head), to infection but the cause I find most often is TrP (trigger points) in the SCM (sternocleidomastoid muscle (ya SCM was easier for me too)).
The SCM is the V in the front of your neck that goes from behind the ear to the sternal notch (that lil indentation at the base of your throat) TrP’s in this muscle can range from forehead headache, to a temporal (temple) headache to vertigo. It’s usually not enough to just rub the SCM. It usually takes some work to its many counter balancing muscles to relive the TrP in the SCM. Doing neck work is not for the uninitiated. There are areas that demand additional knowledge so as not to harm any of the many tender structures in the neck. The good news is that in many of the cases I have worked on it has only taken a single or second session to resolve the issue.
SO stand up straight, Take a deep breath a tall glass of water and get a massage! Your world may calm down a little!
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