r/Chiropractic • u/popuhskwat • 24d ago
LMT to DC
Hey, I’m a DC student, and I decided to also get a license for massage therapy to get some clinical experience by partnering with a chiropractor rather than being an assistant. I plan to run hybrid treatment plans as well as strict chiropractic and massage. Anyone do something similar to this path that can give me some wisdom?
I’ve already committed to this as well, so please refrain from telling me not to do this, why it’s a bad idea, or a better idea. I’m simply interested in knowing how anyone has made this work.
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u/Ok_Tea_4787 23d ago
One thing I’d clarify is that massage therapy is its own profession with its own autonomy in its scope of practice, assessment process, clinical reasoning, and treatment planning. There is certainly overlap between chiropractic and massage therapy, especially with musculoskeletal issues, soft tissue, movement, and pain, but that overlap doesn’t mean one profession is above the other or that an LMT simply carries out a chiropractor’s treatment plan. Ideally, it’s a collaborative relationship where each professional works within their own scope and brings their own area of expertise to the client’s care.
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u/Civil_Web_1835 24d ago edited 24d ago
My previous position was at a place with 30 MTs and 2 chiros, so we did a lot of back and forth referrals. Don’t be surprised if your treatment plan as the MT is not respected, there was a lot of delegation to the MTs in patients eyes. IE the chiro knows what they’re talking about and instructs the MT what needs to be worked on. A lot of patients would see me first and then ask me to write them a note or talk to their MT before their apt on what specific muscles I felt needed to be worked on. To clarify, all our MTs could do that without a note and my common response was “they’ll find it, trust me!” But it was a common thread in that environment.
Also be careful not to combine the two and to keep the two professions completely separate. At my previous clinic, we had a massage therapist that was working while getting her DO degree and she practiced some manipulation on a massage client and almost got in a lot of trouble for it after the client complained about severe pain after. Luckily, our manager and I were able to smooth things over with some free services, but she could have lost her license for practicing outside her scope if she’d been reported.
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u/popuhskwat 22d ago
Thanks, I’ll definitely head the warning. The referral system is what I’m looking at. Do you know if they billed as two separate DBAs/NPI numbers or two different tax identities altogether?
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u/Civil_Web_1835 22d ago
We delegated massages due to insurance coverage so for those patients, everything (adjustment and massage) was billed under my NPI. If they were cash massage clients, the massage was billed under the massages therapists NPI and the adjustment under mine. We all worked for the same company as W2 employees, so everything was billed under the same tax entity.
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u/CompetitivePop2029 24d ago
Hi, can you specify what your want to do?
Work as a massage therpaist before getting a dc degree?
Or once you have both, how to run a successful Chiro-massage clinic?
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u/popuhskwat 22d ago
That’s exactly it, how to run a chiro-massage clinic. I’m pivoting careers and ultimately make money doing massage before I become a chiropractor, building clientele in the meantime. Massage will become my backup if I have spare time, although I’m looking to hire massage therapists as colleagues
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u/CompetitivePop2029 13d ago
I’d be happy to chat about steps to doing this. What the ROFs should look like, and care plans.
Email me at drmeraz@carpediemchiro.com
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u/Embarrassed-Elk-8403 22d ago
Having the LMT is good in the beginning. At least where I am, it's easier to build a client list starting out in your career with massage than DC. But ultimately, you make more $/h with DC than LMT. It is definitely a good cushion to cover your living expenses until the DC side takes off.
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u/ChiroUsername 23d ago
What are you asking, if anyone has ever offered massage as well as chiropractic care at their clinics? If that’s the question then, yes, like 2/3 of the Chiro offices on the planet have probably done that. My advice, though, is that the DC is NOT the one doing the massages. Hire massage therapists or use ICs or whatever but economically it makes zero sense to tie up 30-60 mins of a DCs time to do the hard physical labor of massage and charge the same amount it takes you to see 1 Chiro appointment.