Yesterday [October 8 2009] APTA spoke during the public comment period at a MedPAC meeting during which MedPAC explored whether the in-office ancillary services exception to the Stark II physician self-referral law should be modified. MedPAC expressed concerns with the increase in imaging, pathology, therapy, and other services in physician offices, and discussed specific approaches to address concerns about ownership and volume growth.
In its statement, APTA noted the dramatic increase in recent years in physician ownership of entities that provide physical therapy services. There is an inherent financial conflict created by physician ownership of health care businesses to which they refer, said APTA. “Studies involving the provision of physical therapy services have demonstrated that these arrangements result in higher utilization and higher costs.”
The in-office ancillary exception was created to recognize that in some circumstances enhanced patient convenience may justify the risks presented by the conflict of interest that inheres in self-referral situations. However, APTA explained, provision of physical therapy services by physician owned practices is not more convenient for patients. “It is rare that a patient would begin to receive physical therapy services during a regularly scheduled physician visit,” the association said. “Instead, the patient makes an appointment subsequent to the physician visit. Physical therapy nearly always requires multiple visits over an extended period of time, and during these visits physician presence is not required.”
APTA will be submitting more extensive written comments to MedPAC on the in-office ancillary exception.
ECRC Physical Therapy is proudly physical-therapist owned. Our primary interest is your health.
