Some thoughts and observations on this day:
-In the “healthcare reform of the day department”, reading this mornings WSJ “A new Math Boosts Health Plan”, we are to believe that the latest bill will cost a little over $82 Billion per year to insure an additional 11% of the population which are currently without insurance thus taking the now 17% uninsured down to 6%. On the surface, $82 Billion for 11% is a little hi but CBO math has always been fuzzy to me. Looks like $400 billion is coming in cuts to medicare-a system already on the brink of insolvency
-In the “imitation is flattery” department, APTA has rebranded their magazine to PT in Motion. A quick look to the top left of that link you will probably think it looks an awful lot like Evidence in Motion!
-In the “shallow and not really a victory department”, many are claiming some sense of victory or that we are one step closer to direct access in medicare due to the Senate Finance Committee unanimously passing an amendment authorizing a new government “innovation center” (note for file lookup, in English is that referred to as a “contradiction in terms?”). This center will research the benefits of providing direct access to physical therapy patients in rural areas. Looks like our 10+ year strategy to get direct access in medicare is now in the hooks of an “innovation center”! My understanding is that since direct access would not be attainable, we settled on trying to get it in rural areas. Since that apparently didn’t work, we now are left with it being studied. I suppose the benefits aren’t documented enough but why should those in rural areas (if they get it) be entitled to better care than those who don’t live in rural areas?
-In the “bizarre twitter incident of the day” department, I received a notice of an @physicaltherapy tweet “Ugh @physicaltherapy ready to go the hell home!! Weekend needs to come ASAP! Come to find out, it wasn’t meant for me but a reflection of their time AT PT! The owners of the tweet, couldn’t believe that somebody would actually have my chosen twitter name.
-Lastly, in the “shameless self-promotion category” department, if you are into podcasting PT Talker, produced by Advantage Medical interviews various PT folks. I should be on it by friday afternoon.
