I would bet that soon, physical therapy evaluations could be standardized for all outpatient settings.
For those physical therapists working in
- Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities
- Skilled Nursing Facilities
- Home Health Agencies
Depending on how much credibility you give public/private partnerships like the project called Developing Outpatient Therapy Payment Alternatives (DOTPA) you might wager on the success of their new tool.
DOTPA has created the same tool for all outpatients whether they receive physical, occupational or speech therapy.
Time to complete the tool is expected to be 15-30 minutes per patient.
The new tool will be modeled on the Activity Measure for Post Acute Care - Adaptive Short Form (AM-PAC-ASF) - lovely name, don't you think?
The tool will have separate admission and discharge forms.
The intent of the new tool will be to replace the arbitrary $1,840 therapy cap with a process that aligns payment with patient need.
Now, that's a bet I'll take.
Get details of the new DOTPA tool at www.optherapy.rti.org.
