Is Pilates covered by health insurance?

Is Pilates covered by health insurance? Good question!

The answer is that “it depends”.

These days, “Pilates” is a generic term and the industry is hard to regulate. Not all classes and teachers have the same level of expertise or types of training. A person who does a quick online course over a weekend so they can teach a group class a bootcamp with a bunch of sit ups isn’t going to have the same qualifications as someone who has done years’ worth of intensive and specialized training with regard to, say, neurological disorders, spinal conditions, pre/postnatal exercise, pelvic floor dysfunction, rehabilitative exercise, athletic coaching, etc.

Insurance companies are all about regulation, uniformity, standardization, and quality control… so, generally, Pilates classes won’t fall under “health insurance”, even if your teacher is super experienced and qualified, and even if your practice is helping you recover from an injury or manage your chronic pain.

There are some circumstances where Pilates classes ARE covered by insurance. Within the industry spectrum, there is a variation of Pilates known as “clinical Pilates” which is specifically adapted to rehabilitative exercise as it overlaps with physiotherapy. A teacher with clinical Pilates certification can work under the supervision of an accredited physiotherapist, and then their classes with you may be covered by health insurance. This can be a great option for folks with a limited budget, since regular private Pilates sessions can become quite costly.

While we enjoy collaborating with other health care practitioners like physiotherapists, massage therapists, osteopaths, and others to build client care programs, neither Mykaela nor Nadea work directly under the supervision of a physiotherapist so our services can’t be billed to an insurance company, even though we do see many clients in our studio who have chronic conditions and unique body situations. However, we do try to make our classes and sessions as accessible to folks as possible by offering our community classes by donation, as well as regular memberships and packages for folks who want to do regular sessions with us. We believe wellness should be accessible to anyone, no matter what their circumstances are!