Stop High Physical Therapist Copayments in New York

The New York Physical Therapy Association (NYPTA) is calling on the state legislature to stop insurance companies from requiring patients to pay the higher “specialist" copay for physical therapy services.

Some patients are paying as much as $50 per visit while their insurance may only pay $10, or even nothing at all.

High “specialist” copays put physical therapy out of the financial reach of many patients, forcing them to forgo needed care or choose alternative options that drive up the cost of health care for everyone.

That's why I signed a petition to these legislators:

• The New York State Assembly,
• The New York State Senate, and
• Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Will you sign this petition?

Click here

Thanks!

Who is to Blame for America's High Healthcare Costs?

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post blames high prices charged by healthcare providers and hospitals for spiraling costs in America's healthcare system in an article titled Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France.

According to Klein...

"Two of the five most profitable industries in the United States — the pharmaceuticals industry and the medical device industry — sell health care.  

With margins of almost 20 percent, they beat out even the financial sector for sheer profitability.  

The players sitting across the table from them — the health insurers — are not so profitable.  

In 2009, their profit margins were a mere 2.2 percent.  

That’s a signal that the sellers have the upper hand over the buyers."

However, health insurers are also doing pretty well.

According to the Boston Globe, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts made $136.1 million dollars in 2011 which was TEN TIMES more profit than they made in 2010!

Here is the breakdown of CEO compensation for the four largest health insurance companies in Massachusetts:

• Blue Cross CEO Andrew Dreyfus received $874,000, up from $800,000 in 2010.
• Tufts CEO James Roosevelt Jr. received $1.7 million, up from $1.2 million in 2010.
• Harvard Pilgrim CEO Eric Schultz received $1.2 million, up from $795,000 in 2010.
• Fallon CEO W. Patrick Hughes, received $810,000, up from $649,000 in 2010.

According to Harvard CEO Eric Schultz in the Boston Business Journal:

“A continuing decline in consumer demand for medical services... had a positive impact on our financial performance.”

So, if I follow the logic - Americans pay health insurance premiums but then they can't afford to obtain medical services (perhaps because co-payments are SO high?) and that's the fault of the the medical provider?

Primary Care Physicians Call for Exercises to Treat Lower Back Pain

Wiser words were never spoke in addressing the paradox of payment for lower back pain and physical therapy treatments. Read on...

"We physicians should refer our patients for exercise... 

...practitioners should work to standardize treatments...

...and payers should encourage these treatments through minimization of copayments for therapies that have both effectiveness and modest cost," 

...concludes a comparative effectiveness study on the benefits of yoga for chronic back pain.

 The study, published online October 24th, 2011 in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that yoga and stretching exercises were superior to education provided by a primary care physician along with a self-care book.

The outcome measure used in the Archives study was the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ).

A seperate study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, published in November 2011, found that functional scores improved with yoga but chronic lower back pain scores did not improve.

I would like to see this study repeated with physical therapists providing the stretching and/or the yoga treatments.

Rather than studying the comparative effectiveness of branded treatments (eg: yoga) we should study the comparative effectiveness of branded professionals.