Making Sure Your Massage Therapist is Covered by Massage Therapy Liability Insurance

While massage therapy liability insurance in your chiropractic office might cost more than a previous plan, it’s a far more powerful investment

As a professional chiropractor, you likely invest in liability insurance for yourself, your practice, and those that work hands-on with your patients. This is a necessary investment to ensure that your patients and your staff are all protected should anything alleged or accidental occur. The same applies directly to massage therapists working in your office with massage therapy liability insurance.

But what exactly is massage therapy liability insurance? And further, is it absolutely necessary to ensure coverage for the massage therapists that work in your office? The short answer to this last question is a resounding yes.

This guide will dive into the basics of massage therapy liability insurance and why ensuring the massage therapists that work for you should carry their own massage insurance.

What is massage therapy liability insurance?

You’re likely familiar with liability insurance in a chiropractic setting. It’s probable that you, your practice, and those that work alongside you are covered by a comprehensive policy. But what is massage therapist liability insurance? And further, does it work differently than other liability policies do?

Massage therapist liability insurance – like other forms of liability insurance – is all about safeguarding a professional from the inherent risk that comes with doing their job. Massage therapists, like chiropractors, work very closely with your patients – and with that comes a certain degree of risk (or liability).

This type of unique insurance is designed to cover massage therapists and their unique services in the unlikely and unfortunate probability that a claim is made against them, their business, or their service.

Why does massage liability insurance matter in a chiropractic setting?

That last part of the previous sentence should be a hint at why liability insurance coverage for your massage therapists should be such a big deal. If a claim is made against them, their business, or their service, all three can suffer – and if they’re working under your practice, that means you could be impacted.

As a professional employing a massage therapist, you’re putting your reputation on the line. Essentially, you’re giving them your seal of approval. As such, the need to protect them.

It’s your responsibility to protect your practice

When you employ a professional at your practice – whether it’s a colleague in the chiropractic space or a massage therapist – you’re bringing them into your space. Your practice likely has your name on it to some degree, and that means you’re directly responsible for what occurs in that space.

If you hire massage therapists for your chiropractic office and don’t ensure they’re covered by liability insurance, you’re allowing risk to run the show – and that’s never a good combination in a medical or wellness practice.

Liability insurance ensures that your employees are covered, but importantly that your practice is covered, too. It’s impossible to predict unlikely incidents. And, unfortunately, no matter how trained or composed your staff might be, accidents do happen. Allegations happen, too.

When you cover your massage therapists with liability insurance, you prioritize the practice and make sure that massage therapist liability issues cannot impact its future.

It’s also your responsibility to protect your patients

You owe your patients the surety that comes with covering your employees. They deserve protection, and liability insurance is a form of that. But more so, it’s a pact made with your patients that you value them and their protection.

You’re covering a massage therapist because you trust them and want to ensure that patients, the practice, and your employees are taken care of if something should happen.

In the same vein, when you hire a new employee to work for your practice – a chiropractor, massage therapist, receptionist, and beyond – you’re taking responsibility for their actions.

Ask yourself an important question – are you prepared to deal with the unlikely circumstances and repercussions to your practice, your patients, and your career without liability insurance?

As much as we wish we could, we cannot control the actions of others. Employing someone means that you’re responsible for their actions. That intersection works best when you, your practice, and your massage therapists are covered by liability insurance.

Risk is inherent – coverage is necessary

Every job comes with inherent, built-in risk. Whether someone steps into a hair salon or pulls up to an auto shop, risk happens the moment a patient or customer enters the equation. This is especially true when it comes to hands-on work like massage therapy and chiropractic adjustments.

Coverage for these types of jobs is necessary for many reasons, such as:

• Accidents happen
• Allegations are always possible
• Hands-on treatment demands a higher degree of legal protection by nature
• Every action is unpredictable, no matter how professional or skilled an employee might be

The list could go on and on, but the major takeaway here is that covering massage therapists is necessary because the risk is always going to be there.

Cohesive liability coverage empowers employees

But massage therapy liability insurance coverage isn’t all specifically for the benefit of you, your practice, and your patients. It’s also a crucial piece of the puzzle for employees, like a massage therapist who works for you. Massage therapists can (and likely should) invest in their own professional liability insurance, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t offer them coverage under your policy.

When you offer a massage therapist who works in your office the peace of mind that comes with liability protection, you’re offering them the chance to do their jobs better. In other words, if they’re not constantly concerned about what might happen should a claim roll in (accidentally, allegedly, or somewhere in between), they’ll be far more empowered to do their jobs well.

While massage therapy liability insurance in your chiropractic office might cost more than a previous plan, it’s a far more powerful investment. You’re protecting the professional massage therapist and encouraging them to perform to their best ability, worry-free about the unlikely possibility of a claim.