Is massage therapy covered by insurance in Ontario?

By Alicia Moore, RMT · May 12, 2026

Does OHIP cover massage therapy?

No. OHIP has never covered massage therapy for adults, and there is no referral or doctor's note that changes that. If someone tells you they got a massage covered by OHIP, they are almost certainly thinking of physiotherapy in a specific publicly funded program, which is a different thing.

That surprises people, because massage therapy in Ontario is a regulated health profession. Registered massage therapists study for years and answer to a regulatory college, the same structure as dentists or physiotherapists. Regulated does not mean publicly funded, though. It means the coverage comes from somewhere else: your extended health benefits.

What do extended health plans usually cover?

Most workplace plans cover massage therapy when the provider is an RMT. The exact numbers live in your benefits booklet, but the common shapes are a percentage per visit, often 80 to 100 percent, and a yearly maximum, often somewhere between $300 and $750. Some plans cap the amount per visit instead, for example covering up to $100 of each appointment.

Two things trip people up. First, some plans still ask for a doctor's note before they reimburse, so check your booklet or ask your plan administrator before your first visit rather than after. Second, the yearly maximum usually resets on a calendar date. Every December we meet people discovering unused coverage that disappears on January 1.

How much does a massage cost before insurance?

At our clinic in Burlington, a 30 minute session is $70 and a 45 minute session is $95. The 60 minute session most people book is $125, and 90 minutes is $170. Those are the full prices. Registered massage therapy is a health service, so tipping is not expected and never required, and there is no tax added on top.

Run that against a typical plan and the math is friendly. A plan covering 80 percent of a $125 session leaves you paying $25. A $500 yearly maximum covers four 60 minute sessions with room to spare.

How does direct billing work?

Direct billing means the clinic submits the claim to your insurer while you are still at the desk, and you only pay whatever your plan does not cover. Bring your benefits card to your first appointment and we set it up from there. We bill most of the major extended health insurers directly.

If your insurer is one we cannot bill directly, or your plan does not allow it, you pay the full amount and leave with an official receipt to submit yourself. Most insurers now accept photographed receipts through an app, and reimbursement typically lands within a week or two.

What makes a receipt valid for insurance?

The receipt has to come from a registered massage therapist and show their registration number. That is the line between an RMT clinic and a spa: a relaxation massage at a spa is a lovely thing, but most benefit plans will not reimburse it because there is no RMT receipt behind it. Every session at our clinic ends with a valid receipt, whichever kind of massage you booked. Coverage does not change with the style of work either, so a deep tissue session and a prenatal session are billed exactly the same way.