The bad news. We get a zero percent increase by a population where data shows that 11% access outpatient PT and we must remain complicit with an asinine exception process so that an arbitrary cap is not in place.
The good news. We don’t get a 5–10% pay cut and have a maximum dollar limitation on a population that highest need in regards to physical therapy.
The weird news. We get a 1.5% raise starting July 1 for voluntary reporting of data.
The sad news. We think that the good news is a victory.
Thanks to a lot of very good grass roots efforts (a specialty amongst PT’s) and significant mobilization of resources (particularly by the APTA which certainly deserves a lot of credit for their work on this), we have some relief. We sure do settle for second best.
As far as I can tell, the real work must begin NOW. We need a strategy for dealing with the fee schedule, the exception process, and the overabundance of regulations in dealing with medicare patients (which increases cost).
Can’t wait to see the regulations that will allow us to get about 75 cents more a visit for voluntary reporting of data-I can almost promise that it will cost more than 75 cents per visit to perform.
Now I know what it feels like to be an almost last place NBA team and make the playoffs.
Larry