Good News for a Change!

Some Good News for a Change!
Posted: March 2, 2009 Feedback comment@mtcoach.com

Given the gloomy forecasts we've been pelted with - including my commentary in the previous five posts - I believe it's time for a healthy dose of optimism.

The truth is that there are tremendous opportunities in our industry, especially if we align with health care and corporate wellness initiatives that have contributed to our industry's growth in the first place. Read on

In a 2003 survey conducted by the American Hospital Association on the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), 82% of hospitals utilizing CAM included massage therapy as a form of treatment for patients. An article in the Los Angeles Times reports:

“Hospitals and medical clinics around the United States are beginning to integrate massage into patient care. Massage is currently the most common non-traditional therapy offered in U.S. hospitals, according to an American Hospital Association survey in 2003. The most common uses for massage in hospitals: helping patients cope with pain and stress, and as a therapeutic service for cancer and maternity patients.”^{^[i]}

“At Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, VA, cancer patients are offered therapeutic massage by one of eight trained therapists. Longmont United Hospital in Colorado has a massage therapist on staff around the clock for patients who need or request it.

At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, 11 massage therapists are on a staff team working with hundreds of patients admitted to the hospital or seen at its various clinics. And at the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, a team of four therapists uses massage to alleviate pain and symptoms for patients suffering from illnesses such as fibromyalgia, migraines and back pain.”

Dr. Ka-Kit Hui, director of UCLA’s East-West Center in Santa Monica, CA, goes further: “Massage is a very important therapeutic approach which is underutilized and under-appreciated. A lot of people think massage is good for aches and pains. But what we have found is that massage activates the body’s own healing system.”^{^[ii]}

As our Canadian government opens the door to a parallel private and public health care delivery system, there may be more opportunities for massage therapists to work in the mainstream medical system.

If the funding for massage therapy via extended health care and auto insurance rehabilitation plans continues to decline, how will massage therapists be reimbursed for the services they provide? One answer may lie in the world’s perhaps most abundant source of funds – the corporate world.

According to an annual article appearing in the publication Working Mother, of the “100 Best Companies to Work For”, 77% of these companies provided massage therapy treatments as a benefit of employment. Massage Therapy Journal looked further to find the highest users of corporate massage are the finance industry (24%), followed by the high tech industry (21%) and the insurance industry (19%). Most programs were set up on-site with table and chair massage, where the company negotiated a reduced rate for employees.

Interestingly, of the companies that did initiate these benefits, only 18% reported initiating the programs because they were approached by a massage therapist. Thirty percent were generated by employee interest, and 39% were generated by the company on its own initiative. It appears this is a great untapped opportunity for entrepreneurial practitioners.

Michael Leahy, chiropractor and originator of Active Release Techniques™, has found that many large companies embrace the idea of using effective on-site intervention to lower employee rehabilitation and compensation costs while improving their bottom line.

“There have been several instances where corporations, insurance companies and professional sporting teams have contacted (the ART head office) for lists of providers. Obviously when such situations arose we referred them to the most accomplished provider in their area. We realized that we could help more patients and ART providers by handling these situations differently. So we formed the ART Elite Provider Network (EPN). This is a clinically integrated network of the most experienced ART providers in each state and province. The EPN was formed so that ART can guarantee the highest quality of soft tissue care to large private industries, insurance companies, and sporting organizations.”^{^[iii]}

“Never before has a provider network been formed with a focus on quality of care. Traditionally physician's groups negotiate contracts by cutting their fees. We feel that ART already saves companies a tremendous amount of money, so we do not reduce our rates to acquire business. We focus on savings through outcomes. We have and are successfully negotiating contracts with many large corporations and we are placing providers in these companies to treat employees for a fixed number of hours a week. Each contract is different and compensation amounts may vary, but in all instances the ART providers are reimbursed well for delivery of care.”

One company cited an 81 % reduction in worker’s compensation costs. In a quote from the director of this company, “The ART program was recognized by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, US Dept. of Labor) as the best practice for treating strain/sprain injuries as a preventative measure.”^{^[iv]}

To provide a sense of this problem in Canada, we reference a research paper at the Stats Canada website. The author reported “in 2000/01, 10% of Canadians aged 20 or older, an estimated 2.3 million citizens, reported having had a repetitive strain injury (RSI) in the past 12 months. Work-related activities were most often the cause. People with RSIs had more contact with health care professionals and higher levels of chronic pain and psychological distress than did those without an RSI.”^{^[v]}

Our industry can create new opportunities by providing services to businesses, reducing their health care claims and improving employee quality of life. With the evaluation of these practices and their benefits, more opportunities may become available to therapists, including educational opportunities in postural and movement re-education and workplace ergonomic evaluation.

But there’s a price to pay for these opportunities. We must show efficacy with evidence-based outcomes, and utilize pooled resources to advocate interests.

When people ask me why they should be a member of a professional association, my short answer is “leverage”. Leverage is the ability to use collective talents, abilities and resources to generate larger gains. My longer answer speaks to five key areas that, as a sole practitioner, I would have a great deal of difficulty initiating myself. These are:

Information – A professional association can provide accurate and prompt information about the issues I need to know about. Better information means I can make better decisions.

Advocacy – I want my professional concerns brought effectively before government, the insurance industry and allied health professionals. My professional association has the time and resources to do this much more effectively than I do.

Public Relations - I want my association to actively educate the general public and the afore-mentioned agencies on a regular and consistent basis.

Expansion of opportunities - by investing in research and building alliances, my association can open new doors for me and my colleagues.

Professional Development – I want high-caliber, international experts brought centrally to association events so I can learn straight from the masters. My professional association can organize this for me.

Many professional associations in our industry may be struggling to find and keep active members. Membership dues finance the above-mentioned initiatives which, on an individual practitioner basis, would be difficult or impossible to do. If all of us, across this whole country took this one initiative, it would have a dramatic effect on the profession…join and maintain your membership in your professional association.

Of course it’s not necessary to do all the work alone. There are many complementary industries, such as the health and fitness, competitive sports or the anti-aging industry, occupational health and rehabilitation industries that serve the same markets as our profession. By taking advantage of co-marketing and education efforts, we can effectively serve these markets better, with costs associated with education and research apportioned over a greater number of providers.

Doctor Julia Alleyne, in her article “Welcome to Wellness: An Opportunity for Fitness and Medicine” posits “Perhaps the time has come to connect the fitness and health care industry together in a joint action plan of education, service delivery and preventative medicine.”

“I would like to see a Wellness Package that includes a monthly fee for health services that would be used over the year for prevention, performance or treatment. A wellness coordinator would meet with all clients and set out a plan for achieving an improved state of health and wellness over the year. Services such as massage therapy, dietary consultations, injury prevention assessments, stress management strategies and ergonomic assessments are a few of the gems that would be included in the package. A seamless transition from fitness to health and back again.”^{^[vii]}

According to a 2001 Health Canada study, companies that invest and encourage in-house fitness and wellness programs experience a direct economic benefit. The study found employees in these programs experienced: improved fitness and health, increased productivity and better morale, higher job satisfaction and team spirit, less absenteeism from work or the desire to seek employment elsewhere, and less work-related injuries. This of course all equates to lower WSIB claims, lower turnover and higher company profits. A study by national health insurers showed a return of $1.64 for every dollar a business spends on improving the health of its employees.

Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. of Bolton, Ontario knows this. Husky’s employee benefits include an on-site fitness centre with fitness classes, a healthy-choices cafeteria, daycare services, and an on-site health clinic providing naturopathic, physiotherapist, physician and massage therapist services. Husky’s absenteeism, turnover rate and injury claims are significantly lower than the industry average, with a 1998 estimated savings of $9 million from recycling, energy reduction, lower injuries, absenteeism and insurance claims.

Thinking outside the box, our profession may entertain questions such as “Who can we align with to meet our objectives? What would partners gain in aligning with us?” By aligning with complementary industries, we may be able to get more work done, faster, at proportionately less cost.

So, by aligning with complimentary industries and rethinking our approach to providing care, massage therapists can continue to provide high value, quality care especially when health, worker productivity and quality of life are most valued.

No part of this article may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

[i] MacGregor, H.E: Los Angeles Times, 12-28-2004. Hospitals Getting a Grip: Massage Therapy Finds Place in Patient Care for FM and More

[ii] ibid

[iii] Leahy, M: from the Active Release Techniques website at www.activerelease.com

[iv] Betsch, M: Active Release Techniques – One Company’s Solution for Solving Strain/Sprain Injuries. The Leader, Autumn 2004

[v] Tjepkema, M: StatsCan Vol. 14, # 4

[vi] Dryden, T and White, M.: The Canadian Massage Therapist Alliance Research Network (CMTARN): National Task Force on Outcome-Based Massage. Journal of Soft-Tissue Manipulation, Vol 12, # 3 (Spring 2005), pp 3-5

[vii] Alleyne, Dr. J: Welcome to Wellness. Fitness Business Canada July/August 2005, pg 70