"Physical therapy is not a subspecialty of the medical profession and physical therapists are not medical doctors; we are a separate profession that provides a unique service that physicians are unable and untrained to provide."

Letter to the AMA from the APTA, Dec 2009

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Doc Fix will affect physical therapists, too

We done this three times already in 2010 but the 21.29% cut in the Medicare Physicians' Fee Schedule is again scheduled to go into effect on June 1.

To prevent the cut, The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 (the 'Doc Fix') (HR 4213) is scheduled for a vote this week.

Dr. James Rohan, President of the American Medical Association, explains and defends the 'Doc Fix' in this C-Span video.

Passing HR 4213 will cost more money. The Doc Fix will...
...increase budget deficits by about $115 billion for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 and by about $84 billion over the 2010-2015 and 2010-2020 periods...
Dr. Rohan's position is that current Medicare rates are 20% under a break even cost to keep our offices open.

HR 4213 proposes a 3.5 year payment increase, so long as cost growth on services doesn't grow too much.

After 2013, payments will update consistent with the current law. That means in 2014 doctors and private practice physical therapists will see a dramatic 30% reduction in payments.

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Tim Richardson, PT owns a private practice at Medical Arts Rehabilitation, Inc in Palmetto, Florida. The clinic website is at MedicalArtsRehab.com.

Bulletproof Expert Systems: Clinical Decision Support for Physical Therapists in the Outpatient Setting is a manager's workbook with stories, checklists, charts, graphs, tables, and templates describing how you can use paper-based or computerized tools to improve your clinic's Medicare compliance, process adherence and patient outcomes.

Tim has implemented a computerized Clinical Decision Support (CDS) system in his clinic since 2006 that serves as a Reminder, Alerting, Prompting and Predicting CDS using evidence-based tests and measures.

Tim can be reached at
TimRichPT@BulletproofPT.com .

"Make Decisions like Doctors"


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American Physical Therapy Association

American Physical Therapy Association
Consistent with the American Physical Therapy Association Vision Statement for Physical Therapy 2020, the American Physical Therapy Association supports exclusive physical therapist ownership and operation of physical therapy services.