Fwd: RE: [handtherapists] upcoming RC concerning use of supportive personnel--need input

[Guest guest]

I received this recent thread regarding supportive personnel.

Wondering others thoughts.

[handtherapists] upcoming RC concerning use of supportive

personnel--need input

One of the RCs proposed by the Private Practice Section up for

consideration next week at the House of Delegates concerns the use of

supportive personnel. Currently, APTA documents state, " Physical

therapist assistants, under the direction and supervision of the

physical therapist, are the only individuals who assist in the

provision of selected physical therapy interventions.

The Private Practice RC states " That the American Physical Therapy

Association recognizes and supports physical therapists’ abilities to

utilize the most appropriate support personnel when directing and

supervising selected aspects of physical therapy intervention,

consistent with jurisdictional law. "

Basically, this RC would say that the APTA thinks it is fine for PTs to

designate care to PT aides, athletic trainers, kinesoologists, exercise

physiologists, etc.

I would like to know what our Section member's opinion is on this

issue. Should we as a Section support or stand against this RC? Many

of our members run or work in private practices ( and other areas) in

which it would be helpfull to designate to other personnel because of

time, cost and availability issues.

A few reasons not to vote for this were outlined in the Background

paper developed by APTA national.

1. " If APTA advocated for wider discretion in use of aides or other

qualified individuals beyond the PTA, it is likely that the RBRVS

system would require a re-evaluation of the codes commonly utilized by

PTs. If the outcome of the re-evaluation would increase the use of the

aide, it would decrease the use of the higher valued PTA, and thus

reduce the reimbursement for these commonly delivered services.

2. " CMS now requires that physicians only delegate physical therapy

" incident-to " their professionals services to physicians, nurse

practitioners and physician assistants authorized under state law and

to PTs that graduate from an accredited PT education program. " Concern

is that, " If APTA changed its position to allow other care extenders to

provide these services, physician and care extender organizations would

also argue that the regulations should be amended to allow physicians

to use other care extenders to provide physical therapy services in

their offices. "

Please let me know your thoughts by June 2. Thanks!

Carla Cleary, PT, DPT, CHT

President of the Hand Rehabilitation Section

This message has been scanned for malware by Websense.

www.websense.com & lt;http://www.websense.com/ & gt; & lt;http://www.websense.c

om/ & gt;

------------------------------------