1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

I am a massage therapist and am deeply concerned about the disruption of care of our veterans in the VA Community Care Program. VA’s claims administrators are now demanding that massage therapists repay money for sessions going back to 2023, care that VA authorized, massage therapists delivered, and VA paid for at the rate in effect at the time. VA directed its administrators to cut massage payments starting in July 2025, including applying Medicare’s Multiple Procedure Payment Reduction (MPPR). Massage therapy is not a Medicare service, and a massage visit is a single session. Yet therapists are now being billed for sessions provided before those cuts took effect. The damage is already severe. In September 2026, eight national organizations, including Vietnam Veterans of America and the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs, warned Secretary Collins that the program faces collapse. About 1,000 massage therapists have left, and Kansas, Wyoming and Minnesota have no VA massage coverage left. As your constituent, I urge you to work with the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees to: Stop retroactive clawbacks of claims paid at the rate in effect when care was given. Stop applying MPPR to massage therapy in VA Community Care. Restore payment rates that keep therapists in the network. Create a pain-management pathway so veterans can keep the massage therapy VA prescribes. Please contact VA on behalf of the massage therapists and veterans in our state. Thank you for standing up for the veterans and providers in our state.