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H.R. 1846, The Medicare Access to Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Services Improvement Act of 2007
- This item is from the 110th Congress (2007-2008) and is no longer current. Comments, voting, and wiki editing have been disabled, and the cost/savings estimate has been frozen.
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Visitor Comments
Enon Hopkins
March 4, 2008, 8:51pm (report abuse)This bill is irresponsible and neglects the needs and safety of Medicare patients. Athletic Trainers are not prepared for the demands of screening for contraindications of modalities through their current formal training. Additionally, only licensed therapists should be performing any form of therapy on patients.
ajc
April 22, 2008, 12:32pm (report abuse)First, of all Athletic Trainers are educated on the contraindication of modalities. Second, the bill is not to treat Medicare patients. Most Trainers ARE licensed, under wich they are not to treat Medicare. The reason for the new bill is most insurances follow Medicare regulations. If Trainer are allowed to bill under Medicare, the rest of the insurances will follow. Also you have not read the licenses for athletic Trainers. There are spacific regulations to whom they can treat. Please dont write about things you do not understand.
Tom Lane
April 28, 2008, 1:50pm (report abuse)I am a PTA/ATC and I can say that a majority of ATC's in the clinical setting know a lot more than the therapy staff. They are educated more than I am about indications and contraindications of modalities, evalutation techniques and rehabilitation, just to name a few, which they all have had in school. They are regulated by the same educational board as other professions, and ATC's have to have a lot more continuing education than therapists do. My hopes is that the physical therapy members and athletic trainers can learn to work together rather than against eachother. Remember, it's about the patients.
Jen
November 16, 2008, 4:06pm (report abuse)To ajc-
Please do not write about things that you cannot spell. You have proven the point that only therapy professionals, who are extensively trained and have abundant knowledge of the human body and its physiology, should be allowed to treat these individuals. Athletic trainers are simply unqualified.
Nate
December 10, 2008, 7:22pm (report abuse)I am a certified and licensed athletic trainer who graduated from an accredited university program in which we spent every semester in contact with athletes and practicing the skills that we have learned. We practice our skill every day and fine tune them with input from physicians while working hand in hand with PTs. We are exposed to more numerous and wide ranging injuries in one day than a PT working in a clinic. We have extensive training and education in modalities, evaluation and rehabilitation. If you have ever worked with an ATC you would know that we are just as qualified as PTs. The biggest difference is that PTs can bill and athletic trainers cannot. If we work together, PTs and ATCs can provide a much better quality of care for all patients.
Christine
December 14, 2008, 6:29pm (report abuse)Most medicare patients are not athletes.