I've read about social security running out of money, reduced reimbursement rates, a decrease in the number of qualified providers, quicker discharges and supposedly better recovery after surgery. Where does this leave everyone? Social security has to be there to provide care for the blind and disabled; a reduction in reimbursements will always ...

Now that I'm home from CSM, I've had an opportunity to process all of the information. Most of the presentations were excellent. Those that weren't purely theoretical had a common theme. We have to maximize what we do because we're spending less and less time with patients. We have less time to spend because there isn't money to pay for our ...

The following post was written by ADVANCE guest blogger Brian Knutsen, OTR/L, CHT, president of Buzzards Bay Hand Therapy LLC, located in Marion and Lexington, MA. SAN DIEGO -- In the ''Assessment of Upper Extremity Impairment, Function, and Activity Following Stroke'' session at CSM, Catherine E. Lang, PT, PhD, shared the foundations for ...

SAN DIEGO -- Just like my fellow ADVANCE blogger Lauren, I'll be attending the APTA Combined Sections Meeting in San Diego. CSM happens this week so I'm already in my hotel. I've registered and picked up my materials. I attended my pre-conference workshop on item writing. I'm ready for things to begin. Unlike most of my fellow therapists, the ...

I read with great interest today the post of my fellow blogger and former student intern, Lauren Rosso. Despite my near-constant soapbox routine about the positive aspects of the Affordable Care Act this summer, the words finally sunk in under the tutelage of one of her professors this week. That is really cool! I'm currently working in New York ...

The Physiotherapy UK 2012 conference was in Liverpool this weekend. As I'm now in New York, I couldn't make it to defend the poster of my research, but I left that task in the capable hands of my second author. Unfortunately, she had some serious family issues arise that demanded her attention back in Leeds. The third author was already home with ...

Reading Jason Marketti's blog last week reminded me of a discussion we're having here in Texas. It's called RC-3 and is an amendment to the Texas Physical Therapy Practice Act. It proposes unlicensed individuals such as athletic trainers and massage therapists be used as PT extenders. These extenders are to provide care as directed by the physical ...

It has been a very busy week preparing, as best we could, for the changes we're currently experiencing. Working in a hospital-based, outpatient rehabilitation center, there had never been a dollar restriction on the visits allowed through straight Medicare. Beginning Oct. 1, we've been making patients aware of the amount they've used since ...

October 1 is just around the corner from now, and with it will bring changes to the allowances of physical therapy services for our Medicare population (along with occupational and speech therapy). I'd like to think that as a healthcare professional, we've always provided services that were medically necessary. With a cap of $1880, we are ...

Attention this week has been focused on the Medicare cap that will be in place starting October 1. This will affect all settings of physical therapy by limiting the amount of PT that a patient can receive. As an outpatient clinician, I'm usually the last therapist to reach the patient. What this cap means to me is that I may be providing the ...