Change in eligibility requirements
As of June 1, 2024, Cornell Physical Therapy and Massage Therapy has transitioned our scope of care to provide services to enrolled students and their spouses/partners only.
Physical therapy services:
- Faculty and staff members who were active physical therapy patients prior to June 1 are able to continue their course of care through completion.
- Faculty and staff seeking to begin new courses of PT care on or after June 1 will be referred to community providers for physical therapy services.
Massage therapy services:
- As of June 1, all faculty and staff members seeking massage therapy services are referred to massage therapists in the Ithaca community.
Cornell Health’s core mission is to provide health and well-being services to the enrolled student population. In recent years, we have experienced a significant increase in demand for our physical therapy / massage services. Due to space limitations, we are unable to increase our staffing to meet this growing demand. For these reasons, we have made the difficult decision to limit services to Cornell students (and their spouses / partners) in order to improve access to care and support our core mission.
We recognize that Cornell Physical Therapy / Massage has been a convenient and popular resource for faculty and staff members, and we know that this change will prove challenging for some. Our colleagues in Human Resources have compiled resources and information to support employees seeking these services, including how to find community providers who are in-network with Cornell insurance.
Staff and faculty who have questions about how this change might affect their current course of care should speak with their PT or Massage Therapy provider.