ACDM - Association Canadienne des Massothérapeutes et Autres thérapeutes en Médecines Alternatives
PROFESSIONAL CODE OF ETHICS REMINDER
EMITTING A RECEIPT FOR A GIFT CERTIFICATE OR TO ANOTHER PERSON THAN THE ONE WHO RECEIVED THE TREATMENT
by ACTMD's team
This month, we would like to remind you about few articles that you can find in our professional code of ethics. The code of ethics is really important for both the protection of the public and the therapist. It is important to always keep in mind that the violation of all article of this code by a therapist constitutes a derogatory act to the profession's dignity and to the honour of his/her association.
Once in a while, a therapist will be asked if it would be possible to emit a receipt when a person buys a gift certificate. Another frequent question about receipts sounds like this: "Thanks for the treatment. Could you please emit the receipt to my husband/wife's name?"
Let's look at the article 3.1.11. It says that "the therapist must open a file for any new customer, containing specific information, and maintain it up to date." This article implies that it is a derogatory act for a therapist to sign a gift certificate and emit a receipt for it. How could you submit a receipt, implying that you have a file opened for a person, if you just gave a gift certificate and never actually treated the person? That situation would aslo be derogatory according to the article 4.1.1; w). This article stipulates that "the therapist is being derogatory to the profession dignity if he uses a receipt of insurances for an activity not constituting a treatment as defined in the present Code, for a treatment that has not been done by the person signatory of this receipt, for a treatment that has not been received by the person whose name appears on the receipt, or for indicated rates that don't correspond to the real amount defrayed by the customer." By this article, we can understand that not only a therapist cannot emit a receipt for a gift certificate, but also he/she cannot change the name of the client on the receipt. As example, if I received a treatment but only my husband have insurances, I cannot ask the therapist to put my husband's name on the receipt and if I do ask, the therapist have not the right to do it.
Finally, please do not hesitate to refer to the professional code of ethics on our web site for any hesitation you might have (https://www.actmd.org/codedeontologiee.htm). You should have received a paper copy of it when you became a ACTMD member, but if for any reason you would like to have another one just let us know!
Have a nice month!
Team of ACTMD
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