Greetings Colleagues, I have been following with great interest the strategy of the physical therapy community in moving toward the entry level DPT and submitting legislation to Congress for direct access and potentially prescriptive authority for physical therapists. I haven't heard much concern raised in the OT community or in AOTA about the risks of this to our profession. While I don't generally support OTs always chasing the PTs this one has me on edge.
If the physical therapists gain direct access and no longer require physician 30 day certification for Part B services, they will have a direct line on access to this population. If you were a referring physician, whom would you rather have treat your outpatients? A discipline which could directly manage your patient for you with little or no requirement on your part, or a discipline that required you to continue to follow your patient actively every 30 days, read and sign 30 day recertification notes, and be held accountable for the intensity of treatment provided by the discipline? My guess is that physiatrists would feel threatened and would rather maintain the close contact with patients, which would benefit OT's. My guess is that virtually every other referring specialty physician would rather just refer to PT. The result would be a significant hit on OT access to Part B patients and further increases in scope of practice challenges as PT's step further into the functional skills arena. As I see it, we need to have a direct professional response to this by either requiring this change to be effective for all rehab ancillaries or we need to vigorously oppose this legislation at the national level as a threat to patient access to OT services. Is this on anyone's radar screen? Redge L Campbell MS OTR/L Director of Rehabilitation Services Harrison Hospital Bremerton, WA 98310 360.792.6531 *********��*********** Unsubscribe? Send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message's *body*, put the following text: unsubscribe OTlist ** List messages are archived at: http://www.mail-archive.com/otlist@;otnow.com *********��***********
