In the past we have had a number of questions come from members surrounding what is meant by Stand Alone treatments, and how receipts are supposed to be written when a stand-alone treatment is provided to a client. You could say it is one of our top FAQ’s.
It is important to note here that Spa Therapists do not have to worry about using stand alone treatments as the current CMMOTA Spa Therapist Receipting for Services and or Products Policy no longer requires different receipting for stand alone treatments.
For Massage or Manual Osteopathic Therapists, a Stand-Alone treatment occurs when a singular modality listed under the Additional Modalities section of a professions modality list (RMT click here, MOT click here) is the only modality or technique that is provided during the treatment of a client. In looking for an example that applies to both professions, the modality of Low-Level Laser falls under the above-mentioned sections. Low Level Laser would be considered a Stand-Alone Treatment IF the client was only provided treatment using low level laser.
When only one modality or technique is incorporated into the treatment session then when it comes to billing, and providing a receipt for that treatment session, it would need to be receipted as if the treatment provided was a modality that is outside of scope of practice. What this means in this example is that the receipt description should contain the phrase “Low Level Laser Treatment” and CANNOT contain the therapist’s member number. A stand-alone treatment is also NOT to be direct billed to an insurance company, as it is neither Massage Therapy Treatment or Manual Osteopathic Therapy Treatment – such a case would be fraudulent, and if discovered may result in a therapist being delisted by the Health Insurance companies and no longer being recognized as a legitimate provider for Health Insurance purposes.
When it comes to billing for Massage Therapy or Manual Osteopathic Therapy services, the use of multiple techniques or modalities listed in the modalities list for the profession must be provided during the treatment (RMT click here, MOT click here). When this occurs, the receipt produced for the treatment should contain as a description of services either “Massage Therapy Treatment – XX Minutes” or “Manual Osteopathic Therapy Treatment – XX Minutes.” This provides any third-party health insurance provider with a clear definition of the treatment that was provided which falls easily under any applicable coverage the client may have. Only receipts which include treatment specific to the individual professional designation should contain the therapist’s CMMOTA member number.
More information regarding CMMOTA Receipting Policies covering each professional designation can be found using these links (Manual Osteopathic Therapist, Massage Therapist, Spa Therapist), and examples of receipts can be found under Appendix 30 – Receipt Samples.