challenges facing physical therapy practice

[DPTMAMBA]

What are some of the main and biggest problems facing the field of physical therapy right now? I know on apta they list some issues, but it's hard to understand when some of us are not in the field yet. I found this list on apta: http://www.apta.org/StateIssues/ and was wondering if anyone could help me out on pointing at the right direction. Thanks so much and good luck to everybody!🙂

 

[DesertPT]

Direct access, medicare therapy cap, other reimbursement issues, physician-owned PT clinics, impact of ACA on PT, etc to name a few of the biggies. This has been discussed in several threads in the past.

 

[ashnicolee43]

If asked in an interview, I always think it's best to use the issues you can personalize by using examples that you observed during your experience. For example, I observed that many patients were not able to go to PT sessions because insurance cost them $25-$30 visit co-pay. Many of those patients truly needed the therapy but just couldn't afford it. Direct access is a big one to. That is something I talked about with every PT I shadowed because everyone one of them saw it as the biggest issue.

 

[DesertPT]

If asked in an interview, I always think it's best to use the issues you can personalize by using examples that you observed during your experience. For example, I observed that many patients were not able to go to PT sessions because insurance cost them $25-$30 visit co-pay. Many of those patients truly needed the therapy but just couldn't afford it. Direct access is a big one to. That is something I talked about with every PT I shadowed because everyone one of them saw it as the biggest issue.

Great suggestion but make sure you also have some kind of reasonable theoretical solution to the issue you are proposing (eg. patient who can't afford copays). That will show a lot about your thoughtfulness and intelligence.