It’s National Physical Therapy Month! And to start the month off with a bang, it looks like we have some cause for celebration: This morning, the Senate Finance Committee unanimously passed an amendment that would add a program to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center to examine the expansion of direct access to physical therapy services for Medicare patients living in rural areas.
Even if you and your patients live in an urban area that will not directly benefit from this piece of legislation, the amendment represents a small step forward in the struggle for PT direct access across the board — and as a California native and healthcare provider, I find this struggle for direct access particularly stifling and irksome — so I applaud the effort, with kudos to the APTA for facilitating the conversation.
Can you think of other ways to help patients get the care they need, when they need it, and by the provider of their choice? Let me know!
Anne Ahlman, MPT
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