FSA & Massage Therapy

Will insurance pay for my massage therapy? The short answer is ‘Maybe’. Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) are typically offered by employers and allow you to use pre-tax money to pay for qualified medical expenses. Often, you are given a credit card attached to your FSA to directly pay for services or you submit receipts to your provider for reimbursement.

That being said, IRS requires your primary physician to write you a prescription for massage to treat a specific condition such as stress, arthritis, back pain, depression, carpal tunnel, diabetes, sports related injuries, etc. The prescription for massage should include frequency and duration of the massage. You will need to get the prescription renewed at least annually.

At your massage session, please let your therapist know that you will be submitting the massage expense for FSA reimbursement and the condition you are treating. We also encourage you to send us a copy of the scanned prescription for your files. You can email your prescription to info@creativewellnessstrategies.com or bring a printed copy to your next session.

Generally speaking, most experts recommend keeping proof of FSA expenses on file for at least 3 years. If your company's FSA account is ever audited, you will need the prescription, copies of the receipts and your massage treatment notes supporting condition treatment. If you can’t provide documentation, you will be required to repay the expense. Creative Wellness can make this easy for you. Once we have your prescription, everything you would need for documentation will be readily available in our online system.

Additionally, Creative Wellness can charge a credit card attached to your FSA account for massage services. If you submit your receipts for reimbursement, our online scheduling system will send you a receipt via email or you can log into the system at any time to get your receipts. We do encourage you to check with your individual FSA provider to see if there is any additional information you need to file with them for prior to reimbursement.