PTPN VP leads strategy session on changing the trajectory of declining physical therapy reimbursements

PTPN Vice-President Nancy Rothenberg will be one of the moderators at a conference addressing what is perhaps the greatest challenge facing physical therapists today: the downward pressure on reimbursement and the failure to understand its root cause.

Ms. Rothenberg will facilitate a strategy session to explore the impact on functional outcomes for the industry’s stakeholders at the 2015 conference of the Independent Physical Therapists of California (iPTCA), held May 1 – 2 at the Wyndham Hotel in Irvine, Calif. The event’s featured speakers include Timothy Gendreau, chief strategist at The Gendreau Group, and Gregory Brodek, Esq., partner at Duane Morris LLP.

During the conference, titled “Strategies Unencumbered,” attendees will examine and discuss the symptoms of the issues causing the declining reimbursements, with Mr. Gendreau leading the effort to discuss how to develop strategies that will allow the value of the PT’s services to be measured as part of the larger episode of care. “Outcomes measurement is the best chance there is to reduce the cost of medical care while appropriately assessing the efficacy and value of the treatments provided,” Mr. Gendreau said.

“The decline in reimbursement is really a race to the bottom,” Ms. Rothenberg added. “Unfortunately, it’s a situation in which everyone — the therapist, the patient, and the payer — loses. So it’s incumbent on the physical therapists to find ways to measure and demonstrate the real value of therapy services, and to insist on being compensated fairly for those services.”

Conference organizers say the event will address this issue, with discussion questions such as:

• Why payers are unable or unwilling to recognize the value PTs deliver.
• Why PTs are not being reimbursed commensurate with value delivered.
• What to do about this problem.
• What long-range strategies will be required if the value is to be properly assessed.

Click here for the conference agenda and other details about the event.

 
About PTPN:
PTPN is the nation’s premier specialty network of rehabilitation therapists in independent practice. It has led the rehabilitation industry in pioneering national contracting and quality assurance programs since 1985. PTPN’s network includes thousands of therapists and is contracted with hundreds of managed care organizations covering millions of Americans. All members of PTPN must be independent practitioners who own their own practices. For more information on PTPN, contact Stephen Moore at 818-737-0246 or [email protected], or visit ptpn.com.