“I admit, last Sunday I watched the freak show, reality series known as the Presidential Debate. I wanted to fall asleep but when talk of somebody being in jail caused a belly laugh, I regrettably stayed up and stomached the whole thing. Only one area of conversation was interesting to me-healthcare reform and Obamacare, formerly known as Affordable Care Act.
This blog and our readers have weighed in heavy on this topic (HERE is a link of search on related blog posts). It is now 2016, and our first substantive post was on Oct 2010 entitled That Which Seeks to Kill Will Only Make Me Stronger: ACO’s, Obamacare, and Private Practice PT. If I can describe the pulse of the PT world every time we have had threats of healthcare reform, it would be fear and drudgery. I remember going to national physical therapy conferences in the late 1980’s and 1990’s where nationalized health insurance was going to reduce PT’s to a 500 square ft clinic with one visit and 3 follow up phone calls. PHO’s, HMO’s, capitation, and exclusive networks were going to reduce private practice PT’s to an afterthought. Our extinction like affordability in health insurance, remains a myth.
What we now know:
-rates for health insurance premiums are their highest ever
-benefits for recipients are their lowest ever
-copays and deductibles are highest ever
-ACO’s and vertically integrated systems have for the most part been failures
-a higher percentage of our population is insured (a very good thing)
-PT profession is stronger then ever
Regardless of the winner of the next presidential election, healthcare reform will be a major on-going topic. Will Obamacare be removed or tweaked? How will this impact #physicaltherapy? My fundamental position has not changed. Government reforms will not curve costs, only employer led reforms which are evolving and are bringing favorable light to the force multiplier effect of PT’s as first responders. Getting PT’s to the top of their licenses and changing the access to #PTFirst so that the higher musculoskeletal cost drivers can be changed at their most basic level-initial entry.
In the meantime, ignore the political discourse of healthcare reform because it simply hasn’t worked. Let’s keep doing what we are doing-winning at the ground level.
I was very wrong about one thing in That Which Seeks to Kill Will Only Make Me Stronger: ACO’s, Obamacare, and Private Practice PT, the Cleveland Cavaliers have won the NBA Championship and the Cleveland Indians have advanced in post season play. The “more things change, the more they stay the same” just doesn’t apply to professional sports teams!
Thoughts on healthcare reform and #physicaltherapy?
@physicaltherapy
