AB 783 California

[henohenoman]

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http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/Bills/AB_783/20112012/
http://e-lobbyist.com/gaits/text/235361

Do you think that this bill will become a law? If it does will it set a ripple effect across the nation & how will this affect the profession of Physical Therapy?

 

[henohenoman]

"As for Dr. Wayne, he said he expanded physical therapy at his clinic near Miami's design district because his patients needed it. Medicare regulations require that physical therapists billing under a physician must have completed an accredited physical-therapy education program. But Dr. Wayne said he trained his "office girls" to do the work in part because hiring full-fledged physical therapists was too expensive.


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.'"



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704457604576011382824069032.html#articleTabs=comments



This ignorance & lack of understanding/respect toward PT profession is another reason I'm worried about POPTS. It does no good for the identity of this profession.

 

[hefe]

Here's a website on the topic, PT's in California should stop and stand.:
http://stoppopts.org/

I'm hoping it doesn't pass for many of the same sentiments presented on the site. It prevents PT's from working autonomously within their scope of practice. Why? Who will they work on if your at the mercy of referrals all the time, but physicians compartmentalize in-house? If a physician is allowed and controls influx of PT, it makes good business sense for them. You have physicians that run the referral mill to PT and they keep in house and skim off the top they make hefty bonus for setting up the scheme.

If you say, "Step right this way Ms. Jones, I'm going to write you a script for PT for xx time. Come back here and fill it. I'll have my therapists work you out (over?), we'll help you out."

This is anti-competitive because of the lack of direct access and the way the healthcare system is setup. A patient in this setting will likely not be told about other options for PT than that physician's own facilities. Why? Because anyone that know a rats-arsch about marketing techniques knows if you want to make money you won't put down your own business offerings, just to promote a separate independent. Also, anyone with a brain in the matter realizes that if a physician to creates their own PT clinic they will have a self-vested interest to make money off it and pay to keep the place running. Self-referral in this arrangement is blatantly inherent, otherwise they'd lose money. The PT's and patients lose out because now the shift is towards the bottom line based around how many insurance payouts the patient can get to keep payments coming for the physician owners and PT's.


Apparently, this Hayashi bill is introduced by a person who has her sticky hands dipping in the back pocket of medical lobby funds. Of course, she'll try to run it through.

PT gets pimped out at the legislative table many more time than people like to admit. It also keeps coming back for more. This is because we have fewer numbers and less monetary resources.

Many physicians complain and whine about how the NP's didn't expand their rights through education but through legislature out of one side of their mouth. Then speak out the other side of their mouth, when they back dollar-for-dollar in self-referral mills. Which are created via what means? legislature

Physicians are no more noble with their intentions than NP's, PT's, ND's, Chiro's or whatever. They lobby with their powerful money/power backed self-interest groups just with the best of them. They just like to think they are this way, and tell the public it so. They've been doing it for years, why stop now?

 

[hefe]

If it is illegal for a physician owner to run their own pharmacy in house and fill people's medication perscriptions, why should scripts for PT be any different?

That's right, they lobby laws to create it this way.

 

[TheOx777]

"As for Dr. Wayne, he said he expanded physical therapy at his clinic near Miami's design district because his patients needed it. Medicare regulations require that physical therapists billing under a physician must have completed an accredited physical-therapy education program. But Dr. Wayne said he trained his "office girls" to do the work in part because hiring full-fledged physical therapists was too expensive.


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.'"



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704457604576011382824069032.html#articleTabs=comments



This ignorance & lack of understanding/respect toward PT profession is another reason I'm worried about POPTS. It does no good for the identity of this profession.

I saw this article several months back! It just lends credence to how "grimey" people can be. Now because this Dr. has osteopathic training, he would have advanced training in OMT. A lot of manual treatments are analogous to OMT, from what I am told. However, this is only a part of physical therapy. So he could not have possibly trained 🙄 anyone in the innumerable aspects of PT. I mean I have heard of entrepreneurship, but this kind of stuff makes me IRATE 😡 beyond comprehension!

 

[goyo1010]

These types of cases are plain ludicrous. To think that practitioners would actually do these things to their patients, but I guess it's not really that much of a surprise. The sheer audacity of that Dr. Wayne saying he trained his "girls" in PT, then billed for PT services because obviously those "girls" are now at the level of practicing PTs, right?

These kinds of people need to realize what the profession of PT is. Just because they're physicians...

And I do agree with hefe...

 

[mtm34]

I believe you'll find fraud like this in any industry (Wall Street!) but nonetheless those who are caught should be punished accordingly (Wall Street!). You do have to laugh at a 30 minute hot pack... that's just awesome.