Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/230373
WHAT ARE YOUR RISKS? Tip: Many highdollar insurance claims result from therapists who overstretch, overmanipulate, or are too aggressive when performing deep-tissue work. Remember the basics, regardless of how many years you've been in practice. Make sure each client fills out a proper health history and undergoes an intake process with you— prior to every session. Tip: Stay keenly aware of your client's body language during your session. Check in verbally with the client several times— don't assume that because the pressure was fine in the beginning, it's still fine halfway through. Tip: Always stay within your scope of practice. Don't try out a new technique on clients until you are thoroughly competent and have added lots of practice time to what you learned on that weekend course. COMPARING INSURANCE? No Offering Stacks Up Against ABMP's, So Ask These Questions • Is this claims-made coverage or inferior occurrence-form? • Are the aggregates per member, per year, or shared among all members? • Does the policy provide all three levels of liability coverage: professional liability, general liability, and product liability? • Is there a charge for adding additional insured endorsements (AIEs)? • Does it cover all the treatments and therapies you provide? • What is not covered? • Are defense costs included? • What other benefits does the provider offer? Are you just paying for coverage or do you have a wealth of member benefits available to you? 92 massage & bodywork january/february 2014 Kimpel found the strength to not only improve her business practices, but open her own business. Checking in with the client—frequently—was probably the biggest change she's incorporated. "I never could have imagined that someone wouldn't tell me if something was uncomfortable during the massage," Kimpel says, but that's exactly what the young claimant told the lawyers: she didn't know she could say something. Now Kimpel makes it a point to ensure every client knows they can speak up, and she explains exactly what the session will entail. "I ask, 'Do you understand what you're getting into, what might happen, what you might feel after the massage and during the massage?' And I'm always checking in with them. I have really good communication with clients now. That's harder with clients who like to 'check out,' but I'm sorry, I need to know. Clients have to be as open to me as I am to them." One part of the experience that gave Kimpel comfort—amidst her shaken confidence, lack of support from her employer, and uncertainty about her future—was knowing she was protected financially because of her membership and accompanying liability insurance with Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP). "I didn't have to worry about that part of it," she says. "I got an email one day that it was settled." And that was the last of it. … and It's the Little Things Smaller accidents, like a mild allergic reaction to massage products or bruising after a massage, may seem less catastrophic than a client claiming a ruptured disc or skin grafts. But these can also be expensive and time-consuming claims (and there's no accident so minor that it can't lead to the courtroom).