​

What does it mean to be an L&I patient?

 

An L&I patient is someone who has been injured at work and is receiving treatment under a worker’s compensation claim through Washington State Labor & Industries. If this applies to you, it means your injury happened while you were working, your claim has been opened, and your attending physician has determined that massage therapy may be a necessary part of your recovery.

​

At Meridian Medical Massage, we work closely within L&I guidelines to make sure your treatment is properly documented, approved, and supported every step of the way. This process can feel confusing if you have never gone through it before, so our goal is to make it as clear and straightforward as possible for you.

​

How the L&I process works

 

The first and most important step in receiving treatment under an L&I claim is obtaining a referral. A referral is a medical document written by your attending physician or medical provider stating that massage therapy is recommended as part of your treatment plan. This document is what allows your care to be considered medically necessary under your claim.

​

Sometimes this referral is given directly to you during your appointment with your doctor, and you will then provide it to us before your first visit. Other times, your provider may send it directly to our office. Either way, we must have this referral on file before we can move forward with requesting authorization from L&I.

Once we receive your referral, our office begins the authorization process. We submit your referral along with the required documentation and request approval from L&I for your massage therapy visits. At this point, we are waiting on L&I to review your claim and decide whether to approve or deny the requested treatment. This part of the process is not controlled by our office, and it typically takes anywhere from four to sixteen days depending on L&I.

​

If your treatment is approved, L&I will authorize an initial set of six massage therapy visits. These visits are not open-ended. They are meant to be used within a specific time frame, usually six to eight weeks. It is very important that you attend your appointments consistently during this time. If visits are missed or spread too far apart, it can affect whether additional treatment will be approved in the future.

​

As you move through your first set of visits, your therapist is not only focused on helping you feel better, but also carefully tracking your progress. We are looking at how your body is responding to treatment, what improvements are being made, and whether continued care would be beneficial to your recovery.

​

After you complete your first six visits, if both you and your therapist feel that additional treatment would help you continue progressing, we move into the next step. Our office prepares a detailed progress report that outlines your treatment so far, your improvements, and why continued care may still be medically necessary. This report is then sent to your attending physician for review.

​

Your doctor will look at your progress and make the decision on whether they believe continued massage therapy is appropriate for your injury. If they agree, they will sign off on continued care. Once we receive that approval, we submit another authorization request to L&I along with your progress notes and your physician’s recommendation.

​

L&I will then review everything again and make a decision on whether to approve an additional set of visits. This review process can take another four to sixteen days. If approved, you will receive another six visits under your claim.

​

After your second set of visits, the process becomes more involved. If additional care is still needed, we repeat the process of documenting your progress and requesting continued treatment. However, at this stage, your claim is typically reviewed more closely, often by an L&I nurse consultant rather than just your claim manager. They will evaluate your entire treatment history, your progress, and whether continued care is appropriate at that point in your recovery.

​

Third sets of visits are not always easy to obtain, but we take this process seriously. When continued treatment is truly beneficial for our patients, we do everything we can to clearly document the medical necessity and advocate for additional care.

​

Our role in your care

 

When you are being treated under an L&I claim, our responsibility goes beyond the treatment room. We are managing timelines, submitting documentation, communicating with your doctor, and making sure everything is done correctly so your care has the best chance of being approved.

​

We understand that you are dealing with pain, disruption to your daily life, and often stress related to your injury. Our job is to help carry the administrative side of this process so you can focus on healing. At the same time, we will always keep you informed about where you are in your claim, how many visits you have, and what the next steps look like.

​

What you need to know as a patient

 

It is important to understand that L&I ultimately controls what is approved under your claim. Decisions about how many visits are authorized are based on medical necessity, documentation, and how your body is responding to care. Because of that, consistency with your appointments and open communication with both your therapist and your doctor are very important.

​

The more clearly your progress is documented and the more consistent your care is, the stronger your case is for continued treatment when needed. Our goal is always to support you in that process and give you the best possible chance of receiving the care your body needs to recover.

​

We are here to help

 

If at any point you feel unsure about your claim, your visits, your referral, or what happens next, please reach out to us. You are not expected to understand this process on your own.

​

You can call or text our office at 253-553-9928, and we will help guide you through where you are in your claim and what to expect moving forward.

​