We are not sure where, how or why but somewhere along the way confusion has entered the picture on the writing of receipts for services and or products that are provided to clients. You can access the Receipting for Services and or Products Policy (https://cmmota.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Receipting-for-Services-and-or-Products-Policy.pdf) by clicking on this link.
Our hope with this article is to clear some of that confusion up for CMMOTA Members who may have been struggling to know when to write a receipt, when not to write a receipt, what to include on the receipt and more.
- A receipt should only ever be written in the name of the therapist who provided the treatment. Period. If receipts are being written under your name and CMMOTA number when you did not provide the treatment then fraud is being committed, and you as a therapist may be personally liable both criminally and civilly.
- A receipt should only ever be issued in the name of the person who received the service or the product.
- A receipt for the sale of a gift certificate or gift card should never contain a CMMOTA membership number because no treatment has been provided for that sale. Sales of gift cards are not eligible for reimbursement under any health insurance plan.
- A receipt for treatment which is paid for by a gift certificate/gift card may be issued with the CMMOTA membership number but must clearly contain that the massage was paid for by gift certificate or credit card. Massage treatments which have been paid for by gift card or gift certificate are not to be submitted by the therapist to a health insurance company on behalf of the client. If the client wishes to submit your receipt to the insurance company for reimbursement that is fine, but please be sure to inform the client that there is no guarantee that they will be reimbursed for a massage treatment that was paid for with a gift certificate or gift card.
- If your treatment involves a “complementary modality” (RMT’s please see Appendix 19 – Modalities List for Massage Therapists, (https://cmmota.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Appendix-19-Modalities-List-for-Massage-Therapists.pdf) MOT’s please see Appendix 34 – Modalities List for Manual Osteopathic Therapists), (https://cmmota.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Appendix-34-Modalities-List-for-Manual-Osteopathic-Therapists.pdf) you are not to describe the treatment provided as Massage Therapy or Manual Osteopathic Therapy as all complementary modalities fall outside of scope. You are also not to include your CMMOTA membership number on any of these receipts. Membership numbers should only be included when the treatment provided is considered to be within the scope of your profession (either massage therapy or manual osteopathic therapy).
- If your treatment involves a modality listed under the additional modalities of your profession (again RMT’s please see Appendix 19 – Modalities List for Massage Therapists, (https://cmmota.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Appendix-19-Modalities-List-for-Massage-Therapists.pdf) MOT’s please see Appendix 34 – Modalities List for Manual Osteopathic Therapists, (https://cmmota.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Appendix-34-Modalities-List-for-Manual-Osteopathic-Therapists.pdf) and that modality is used alone, and is not incorporated as part of a massage treatment or a manual osteopathic treatment then it is not to be receipted as Massage Therapy Treatment or Manual Osteopathic Therapy Treatment, and the receipt cannot include your CMMOTA membership number. Here is an example: If during a massage treatment you as a therapist were to use suction cupping on your client as part of the overall treatment provided, then it can be invoiced or billed as Massage Therapy. If on the other hand you had a client who was seeking more of a traditional cupping treatment, where the cupping was the only technique used in the treatment, then this would be billed as Cupping Therapy, and you would not include your member number on the receipt. For further clarification, you could interject any of the modalities listed in the additional modalities section in place of the word cupping. In other words – any modality listed under the additional modalities section must be used in conjunction with other techniques and modalities in order to be classed as a Massage or Manual Osteopathic Therapy Treatment.
- When you provide a receipt for any products sold through your massage therapy practice, the receipt should not contain your CMMOTA membership number. If the product is purchased at the same time as payment is made for a treatment, two separate receipts must be issued.
- For those members who hold dual professional designations, massage therapy treatment and manual osteopathic therapy treatment are not to be receipted together. The same standard would apply if you were providing a massage therapy treatment and a chiropractic treatment. A receipt issued for massage therapy should include your CMMOTA RMT Member Number only. A receipt issued for manual osteopathic therapy should include your CMMOTA MOT Member Number only. At no time should any receipt issued by a dual member include both their CMMOTA RMT Member Number and their CMMOTA MOT Member Number. This also holds true if you have another professional designation such as Acupuncturist or Chiropractor.
The reason that receipt writing is so incredibly important, and why we have placed such a high importance on it as an Association is because we desire to protect our members from unknowingly committing an act of fraud. If as a therapist you ever have a question about this or any other aspect of clinical practice, we encourage you to reach out to the Association by contacting the office, either by phone (403)356-1160 or by email to info@cmmota.com.