Alright, up front I have to say that this was not originally going to be today’s topic……..however, it was so funny and ironic that I had to share. I was texting a message today and must have started spelling the word “insurance” incorrectly, because all of a sudden the word uninsured popped up and my mind read it as “uninsurance”……..and I laughed out loud at the thought of uninsurance because that’s what most of us have! We all pay a ridiculous amount of money for “insurance” that often fails when we need it most. How often have you been forced to either discharge a patient or make them sign a self-pay waiver (Aetna…..25 visits, anyone) because of their insurance? How many patients get upset that their insurance prevents them from seeing the provider they want to see? (Medicare patients, anyone)? Ever have a patient whose insurance won’t cover an MRI until they have had a trial of physical therapy and failed all conservative treatment? How absurd that our insurance companies are often the ones preventing us from accessing the care we need. As P.T.’s and also as healthcare consumers/patients, we have to take a stand against this. This shift is happening slowly, as more patients and therapists get to the end of their rope and abandon traditional insurance based healthcare; but, we are still the minority. My current beef is with Medicare. As a P.T., I can never, ever opt-out of Medicare. Believe me, I checked into it for days to get to the bottom of this. I was actually told by Highmark, our local Medicare carrier, that as a P.T. I could opt-out, they even directed me to the form I could use. But, after running this by many other therapists, and the APTA, I found out that the […]
Read more →Since I have been asked this question multiple times lately, I figured I would answer it in my first blog post as an unempl….I mean self-employed physical therapist. Many of you know that I was in private practice from 2003-2006 in Alexandria, VA. After three years of successful private practice, the (un)perfect storm of events conspired to make it clear that I needed to make some changes. In 2006 I went to work for two of the most gifted PT’s I know at Hand -N- Hand Therapy in Arlington, VA. I learned so much from these ladies; but, in 2007 I needed health insurance and some of the benefits of a big company. I went to work for a large physical therapy company. During my time at said large orthopedic physical therapy practice, I was able to update my skills with post-op orthopedic patients and also take some amazing continuing education (insert shameless plug for Myopain Seminars). After 100 hours of classroom education and training (and a million more hours of driving and studying, not to mention getting stuck by my partner with hundreds of needles….but I digress), I successfully passed the written and practical exams to become a Certified Myofascial Trigger Point Therapist (i.e. I can now utilize dry needling in my practice). After 6 months of incorporating dry needling as a modality, I began to think outside the box again, and realized there was so much more I could do to help my patients………..but not in that setting. The large physical therapy practice I worked for was IMO the best around, so by no means is this about them. This is about the state of physical therapy (and healthcare) in general. As providers, we want to have a steady paycheck and full benefits to support our families; but, […]
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