Those are two powerful words in healthcare today -- ''accessible'' and ''affordable.'' We (healthcare providers) need to be accessible and affordable to patients in order to provide care, period. Those two words don't even begin to address quality or evidence-based care, but simply allow patients the opportunity to receive care. This concept is ...

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), Alexandria, VA, announced in an April 30 press release that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has signed HB 1034, granting Hoosiers direct access to evaluation and treatment by a physical therapist without a physician referral. Ensuring a patient's choice of which healthcare professional ...

The American Physical Therapy Association, Alexandria, VA, put out a press release yesterday detailing the role that therapy professionals and students played in helping victims of the tragic bombing at the Boston Marathon. The release stated: ''A team of 70 members of APTA's Massachusetts Chapter, stationed at the Boston Marathon finish line on ...

Someone was fired last week. The rumor is going around that she was fired because she didn't smile. I don't know if that's true or not but in Texas it is legal. Here an employer can fire an employee for any reason, even if they make it up. Nor do they have to prove it's true. There are no laws preventing it. Maybe the woman smiled. Maybe she ...

It has been just over three years since ''Treat Me, but No Tricks Please''  appeared in The New York Times. In this scathing piece about inconsistency in physical therapy, Gina Kolata roiled emotions and got a lot of people thinking about whether what we do actually works or not. It was of little help that the president of the orthopedic ...

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 ...

I just returned from my first trip to the APTA's Combined Sections Meeting, and I'm left with a variety of feelings about the experience. Overall, I would consider the trip a success, but there were definitely some aspects of CSM that left something to be desired. I did a lot of reflecting on the flight home, and here's what I came up with. ...

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 CSM session, ''Emerging Technologies for Enhancing Post-Stroke Arm Rehabilitation,'' speakers Mindy Levin, PT, PhD, and Michelle Harris-Love PT, PhD, discussed two ...

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 CSM session, ''Practice, Coding, Documentation and Reimbursement,'' Nancy Beckley, MS, MBA, CHC, shared a quick Medicare update to start. The audience then launched ...

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 -- The CSM session ''Athletic Injuries to the Forearm, Wrist and Hand,'' presented by Kevin J. Lawrence, PT, DHS, OCS, was well attended with standing room only. I was ...