Re: Observations from a Utilization Reviewer

[Guest guest]

Alan,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I have done a small amuont of Utilization

Review in the past and own my own outpaitent PT clinic. Although, at my office,

I feel we do a pretty good job with most of the items you mentioned, it is great

to have reminders like this to refocus and make sure that we are doing an even

better job of documenting our level of expertise and care.

The PT diagnosis is a great opportunity to share with the patient and the rest

of the healthcare practitioners our ability to truly figure out what is wrong

with them. Unfortunately, it seems way too many PTs focus on the symptoms and

do not even really try to uncover the source of the s/s. It does take time and

effort to do this correctly and involves more than just the one body part.

I really encourage all PTs to take the time to do this and you will find that

you really can make a difference in getting your patients better quicker and

with much better final results. You will also probably prevent other issues by

correcting the source versus just calming down the acute symptoms.

I know many PTs (probably more likely ones that are not on this list-serv)will

say that they do not have time to really do this. I agree that if you are

trying to treat multiple patients at once, then you probably do not have the

time. If that is the case, then change jobs or refuse to treat multiple

patients at once. We should be giving the patients the time that they need (and

billing appropriately for it).

Thanks again for your post.

Brad Freemyer, PT

Roswell, GA

>

>

> Subject: Observation from a Utilization Reviewer

> To: hpa-list

> Date: Sunday, October 9, 2011, 7:29 PM

>

> All,

> I recently reviewed several hundreds of initial evals & POCs from PT providers

in three states.  For your consideration, these are the

> unfortunate trends that I see in way too many cases.  Doesn't matter if it is

a BS, MPT, or DPT.  Doesn't change with setting or years of experience.