How Can I "Sell" the DOTPA 17-page Physical Therapy Evaluation to my Friends and Peers?

I've a confession to make...

I once tried to go to work for Stryker Corp. This was back in 2005, before I decided to make the big commitment to private practice physical therapy.

Stryker Corp. are the folks who make prosthetic hips, joint cement, screws and locking systems for joint fusions. Their customers are orthopedic and neurosurgeons who have among the most expensive pens in all of medicine.

My Stryker contact made me take a test called the StengthsFinder Test. The point of the test was to identify the strengths of those people who would make a killer salesperson:

• Achiever
• Competition
• Interpersonal
• Stimulator
• Persuasion

Although neither Stryker (nor Gallup) will reveal their criteria for hire I believe these listed above are the attributes of a killer salesperson. Needless to say, I did not test high on some of these qualities.

The qualities I tested high on were the following:

• Achiever
• Input
• Learner
• Strategic
• Context

According to my Stryker contact, these are the qualities that make for a good college professor. Oh well, I didn't really want to be a salesperson anyways...

Which brings me to the point of this blog post, which is that I just participated in the:

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Special Open Door Forum: Developing Outpatient Therapy Payment Alternatives (DOTPA) - Data Collection Update

...and now I have to go "sell" the new DOTPA 17-page physical therapy evaluation form to my friends, staff,and peers. I have to sell this form that may...

1. add to their paperwork burden
2. cannot be used as part of the medical record
3. is not electronic
4. carries no additional reimbursement...

One of the benefits of participating in this voluntary initiative is that clinics and hospitals will receive a 6-month "holiday" from Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) and Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) record requests.

Another benefit to participating is that PTs will be among the first to "climb the learning curve" of the new Medicare alternative payment system that is due by May 2013. Physical therapists in Private Practice (PTPP) are among the last to learn these new programs because of time and resource constraints.

Here is the DOTPA slideshow from the August 19th Open Door Forum:



So, are the RAC/MAC holiday and documentation skills the only two features of DOTPA that I've got to sell to my staff? And, are time and administrative capacity the two biggest constraints that PTPP's have in implementing the new Medicare DOTPA 17-page evaluation?

What about selling skills?

How would you "sell" this new program to your staff and peers?