NPTA Membership Growth

We want to recognize our amazing membership team; Lisa Taylor and Laura Cerame: the Neveada Physical Thearpy Assocation membership has increased by 10.52% (53 members).

APTA closed 2011 with a record 81,174 members at the end of December 2011.

Thanks to all of your efforts, we saw growth across all categories of membership, and look forward to continuing the momentum in 2012.

Reimbursement 2012

The Reimbursement Dept of APTA is developing a workers compensation committee and is looking for a person that is the "go to" person for workers comp issues to help on this committee.

It's still in the early phases of development, but here are the two over-arching objectives identified to date:
•Position PTs as leaders and valuable contributors in Workers' Compensation
•Ensure PTs are aware of and compliant with workers' compensation regulations.
Under the second objective, one of the goals will be to facilitate development of workers' compensation experts (resources who understand the regulations and the payment rules) in each jurisdiction.
 

Please contact Leanne Sparks lmspark@aol.com by 1/22/2012 if you would like to participate.

Hospital Based PT Services

APTA has posted updated information on the new and revised Conditions of Participation for hospitals.

APTA currently is in discussion with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding new interpretive guidelines that were issued November 18, 2011. This recent interpretation states that rehabilitation services must be ordered by a qualified practitioner who is responsible for the care of the patient and who has medical staff privileges to write orders for these services. CMS' Conditions of Participation rules apply to both inpatient and outpatient hospital-based settings and apply not only to Medicare beneficiaries but to all patients who receive services at the hospital. 

APTA believes that this new interpretation is inconsistent with the current regulation and that it poses problems for physical therapists and their patients in hospital-based settings. The association is working diligently to get further clarification from CMS and will keep members updated as soon as more information is available.

www.apta.org/PTinMotion/NewsNow/2012/1/4/CMSGuidelines/