Why Physical Therapists Should Care About Interoperability

I just got back from the 2013 Florida Perspectives: Transforming Healthcare through Health Information Technology on Friday, July 19th, 3013 at the University of Central Florida, Lake Nona Medical Center in Orlando.

This program was put on by the Central and North Florida Health Information Management Systems Society (CNF-HIMSS).

Why should you care?

Physical therapists can help answer the problems of interoperability in healthcare which are far from solved. Nobody has all the answers yet - not policymakers, not administrators, not physicians and not even the technical gurus that help us keep our computers running.

Some of the challenges outlined by CNF-HIMSS are near-universal among healthcare workers and include the following:

• How should we train our new clinicians to use Electronic Medical Records in our daily work?
• How should we incorporate the legions of newly eligible patients under ObamaCare?
• How should Florida structure its new Medicaid program?
• Can the Florida legislature quickly reach agreement on important matters concerning healthcare?
• For that matter, can the Federal Congress reach agreement on important issues regarding funding?

Rich Rasmussen, the Vice President of Member Relations of the Florida Hospital Association got up about midway through the meeting and issued a call to action...

"We're all in this together!" he said, referring to the importance of adequate funding for state Medicaid recipients accessing care through the emergency room... 

"My healthcare and your healthcare costs are about $1,100 per year higher than they would otherwise be because of these uninsured patients."

What can physical therapists do? We can stay informed of the issues and support those that dovetail with issues important to physical therapists.

For instance, most of my readers know that in 2012 the Florida House of Representatives failed to support Governor Rick Scott's proposal to accept Federal funds for about 1.3 million state Medicaid recipients. The Florida Senate passed the Governor's plan but the House responded with a plan that would cover only about 100,000 Floridians. That still left over 1 million uninsured Florida residents!

Physical therapists, especially physical therapist private practice owners, would probably like very much for those 1 million Floridians to have access to physical therapy. Rich Rasmussen wants those people to have access to his hospitals.

When we can find this common ground with hospitals and other advocacy groups then physical therapists can really come together with a common voice to speak to our legislators. We can show our leader that we really are in this together.

Governor Scott signs Physical Therapist/PTA Temporary License Bill into Law

Physical Therapists and Physical Therapists Assistants graduating from Florida based PT and PTA programs will be able to obtain temporary licensure thanks to Governor Rick Scott signing HB 799 into law on Friday, April 6, 2012.

With Governor’s Scott’s signature HB 799 will become law effective June 1.

HB 799 was a major priority of the Florida Physical Therapy Association (FPTA) along with the state’s 11 Physical Therapy and 15 Physical Therapy Assistant schools.

Passage of the legislation can be attributed to the hard work of our PT and PTA students, faculty, and FPTA leadership and legislative counsel.

As a recap, HB 799 and its companion SB 1228 were heard in a total of six committees of reference and passed every single committee without objection. On final passage in the Florida House of Representatives HB 799 passed 114-0 and then passed 36-0 in the Florida Senate.

While process barriers were ever present during the 2012 session, the legislation steamed on toward final passage. However, it wasn’t until the final day, March 9 at 11:22 p.m. that HB 799 achieved final passage and was enrolled. On Friday, March 23, the Florida House of Representatives procedurally released HB 799 from its purview to be considered by Florida Governor Rick Scott.

As mentioned previously, Governor Scott signed the bill into law Friday, April 6. FPTA’s strategy was textbook advocacy for taking an idea and making it a law.

Thank you to the following legislative sponsors:

• Rep. Tom Goodson, R-Titusville
• Senator Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee

Florida Physical Therapy Bill Passes House 114 to 0

A committee substitution (CS 1228) passed unanimously through the Florida House of Representatives today for the Florida Physical Therapy Association's (FPTA) Temporary Licensure bill attempting to change the physical therapist practice act.

This is not the final action for this piece of legislation since it still needs to pass the Florida Senate.

Keep up the communication with your local representatives and stay tuned to the FPTA website for up-to-date information on which legislator needs to be contacted for specific committee votes.

Great job from the grassroots so far.

Let's keep it up!

Florida Physical Therapy Bill Recieves Unanimous Support in Sub-Committee

Fourteen out of fourteen Florida House of Representatives in the Health Human Services Quality Subcommittee voted to adopt the Temprary License (HB 799) bill for new graduate physical therapists and physical therapist assistants without objection.

Congratulations to the Florida Physical Therapy Association (FPTA)!

Now, on to the House Education Committee and the House Health & Human Services Committe as detailed on the House Bill Tracker website.

Then, on to the Florida Senate.

If HB 799 passes this will be a significant victory for the Florida Physical Therapy Association.

Check the FPTA website for timely announcements to call your House members to ask for support of HB 799.

Florida Representatives have Concerns about Telemedicine Bill

A new bill covering telemedicine services (HB 505/SB 1882) was read on the full Florida House of Representatives floor on Tuesday March 8th, 2011.

The bill requires health insurers, corporations, and health maintenance organizations issuing certain health policies to provide coverage for telemedicine services.

The new bill prohibits the exclusion of telemedicine cost coverage solely because the services were not provided face to face.

The bill provides coverage under the state plan without a condition that telemedicine services are restricted to health care providers licensed by the Florida Deptartment of Health.

If the telemedicine bill is passed in its present form it would require the insurer to reimburse for services provided by a health care provider not licensed within Florida

This would render the regulation of health care professionals by the respective professional boards, where telemedicine is concerned, moot with regard to out of state practitioners.

Similar telemedicine legislation is being debated in California, Oregon and Washington state right now.

Nurses have created "Nursing Compacts" with government grants that are, in effect, seperate licenses allowing them to practice across state lines.

Physicians have a "special license" that allows them to practice medicine across state lines and still retain the supervision of their state licensing boards.

Why should Physical Therapists be left out of the party?

A recent randomized, controlled trial in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery showed that telerehabilitation, in one setting, can produce superior outcomes than conventional Physical Therapy for Total Knee Replacement.

What do the readers of PhysicalTherapyDiagnosis.com think about telerehabilitation services, such as remote video monitoring?