The Huffington Post—October 14, 2009
This mandate will potentially cause patients to have increased pain and injury from the PT if being performed for an inadequately or inaccurately diagnosed symptom. The PT appointments and follow up visits with specialists will further prolong a patient's time away from work and will further delay obtaining an accurate diagnosis and initiation of appropriate PT and/or intervention.
The policy also positions nonradiology, self-referring physicians who own in-office MR equipment and control their own (self) referrals, to order PT, indicated or not, prior to their ordering their in-office MR in order to assure that they will be reimbursed at the enhanced rate.
This proposed policy, if instituted, will result in the ordering of more PT and more MR and will neither cut costs nor facilitate optimal patient care.
If you are concerned about the quality of your ongoing level of care, and/or if you plan to visit your local physician about lower back pain, reach out to The National Quality Forum (info@qualityforum.org) and ask them about the rationale behind this initiative.
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