wow...what a horrible human being. I hope the AMA gets his license revoked (although if you read the last sentence of the article, it sounds like he doesn't really need to be at his current position as a Vicodin-addicts suppllier).
"Referring to Medicare's therapist-education requirement, he said, "I interpret that as, 'If I train them in physical therapy, that should be good enough.'"
Wow...a DO not only thinks he is personally qualified to provide PT, but to train his "office girls" to do it as well...although to be fair, he's not really providing PT...hot packs, massage, estim, and ice is not necessarily PT, and that is what a lot of PT aides do...but if he doesn't have a PT working for him he shouldn't be able to call it PT. Plus, I know DOs at least get trained in some more hands on stuff than MDs, but still...he's a PCP...my PCP thought my tendon snapping over scar tissue in my ankle was just normal cracking of an ankle and said PT would be useless, but my PT knew exactly what it was and fixed it for me.
People like this d-bag (I'm hesistant to use that term, but seriously, read the story and look at his hair...it screams it) are the reason our health care industry is so screwed up...I don't know how he's gotten away with it. Our clinic would get denied reimbursement for the poor little old lady who exceeded her max after a bilateral knee replacement, but he gets away with it.
And to some degree, most PTs commit medicare fraud because of the exceptions process...tweaking DX codes to let their patients fall into the right ones to continue treatment. But, that's justifiable because at least in the cases I've seen in our clinic, the patients definitely still needed PT.
