Do you know about C-TAC? Chances are good that you don’t.

Most massage therapists probably wouldn’t think twice about C-TAC even if they had heard about them.

The Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) is dedicated to the ideal that all Americans with advanced illness receive comprehensive, high-quality, person and family-centered care that is consistent with their goals and values and honors their dignity. They achieve this by empowering consumers, changing the health delivery system, improving public and private policies, and enhancing provider capacity.

And they want Healwell to be a member! They reached out and asked us to join!

It was a very Sally Field moment.

Healwell has made it a priority, since C-TAC’s birth in 2011, to attend their annual policy forums, round table discussions and community health webinars. I stand up and raise my hand in sessions and ask questions that start with, “How would massage therapy fit into that program?” We share C-TAC’s dedication to meaningfully addressing racial health disparities, increasing access and broadening the spectrum of services that are available to support health. Spend just a few minutes on C-TAC’s website and you will see that they are asking the hard questions and sharing what they find when they ask.

C-TAC’s membership roster includes some of the largest insurance payors (like Anthem, Kaiser Permanente, Cigna and Care First), some of the largest healthcare systems (MedStar, Bon Secours and Vanderbilt Health) as well as nursing education organizations, hospice organizations, healthcare quality assessment groups and a variety of other stakeholders. These are influential forces in healthcare. And they never hear the voice of massage therapy when they are deciding about what the future of healthcare can and will be.

They learned about Healwell’s work through their members and reached out to invite us to take our very own seat at the table.

We already work with a handful of their member organizations, but official membership in C-TAC’s community will open new and important doors certainly for Healwell, but more importantly, for massage therapy and for massage therapists who want to create careers as valuable and valued members of the healthcare workforce.

C-TAC shares Healwell’s heart and compassion. As such, they have already welcomed us as members rather than waiting until they have our annual dues of $500 in their human-centered pocket. They have listed us on their website, shared the news of our new membership status through social media and next week they will post our “Member Spotlight” as a more official introduction to the rest of the members. Now, all we have to do is pay up.

COVID-19 has made this a difficult time for Healwell to take advantage of opportunities like this one, but you can help by contributing today! Make the choice today to support our ability to be an important voice shaping the future of massage therapy.