Your doctor is stealing my PT…
The past 5 years has seen a radical change in the way medicine, rehab, and health care are delivered. No more does your doctor control what medicines you take, or what procedure needs to be done for you. Now your insurance company gets to select which procedure, test, etc they can afford for you to get. If we bring it back to the source point of all of these changes, we find money… of course we do.
Recently, your doctor has tried to get more money back into his pocket. After all the insurance companies have been taking it from him for the past decade or two. The way your doctor and the rest of the California Medical Association figured they could do this was to make it legal to own their own PT (physical therapy) practices. Currently it is illegal for docs to own or employee PT’s, because there is an inerrant risk of double dipping. The federal government & Medicare realize this and have outlawed self referring; however, the State of CA takes a weak stance on it. So right now in the States Legislature, there is a bill called AB 783 which would allow medical doctors the right to employ and own PT practices.
Of course the CA Medical Association has put a great spin on it saying that it is about creating and saving jobs. BS! It is truly about your doctors ability to make more money, like he or she used to before the insurance companies took it all. If this bill passes, your doctor can simply refer you to his PT and not give you a choice to see another PT that may specialize in your injury or sport, or be closer to your house, etc… Of course you will listen, he is your doctor and is always looking out for your best interest, right? This way when you go to your doctor’s PT clinic, he gets to double dip in your health insurances payments. Essentially, he is getting paid to see you in his office and getting paid to send you to his PT, and getting paid everytime you go to PT. Do you see the issue here? The federal government does! In fact, there is great literature to tell us that 91% of the time when doctor’s own the PT practice the care is sub standard… not only is it substandard but when doc’s own the PT practice they refer 60% more patients to their substandard PT clinic than any other PT clinic in the area.
So if the care you will be getting at your doctor’s PT clinic is substandard, why does he send you there? Is it because he really wants you to improve and return to your sport or exercise routine? Is it because he really trusts his own PT clinic more than any others? Is it because its really convenient to your house or office?
Or is it because he knows he can simply make more money each year by controlling where his patients go to physical therapy? “Duh, winning”, as quoted by your favorite superstar Charlie Sheen.