Re: supervision question

[Guest guest]

,

It is the position of the American Physical Therapy Association and

it is mandated by Medicare that the only qualified providers of

Physical Therapy are licensed Physical Therapists or Physical

Therapy Assistants.

I direct you to the recent post regarding the article in the New

Jersey Times Ledger indicating that a rehab facility in New Jersey

was hit with a 3 Million dollar judgement by a jury who concluded

that the center was indeed responsible for causing a post rotator

cuff repair patient to rupture the repair while being treated by

and " aide " (read unlicensed personnel) during peformance of wand

exercises.

Not only does the treatment you describe open you up to this type of

liability but, if performed on Medicare clients it opens you up to

severe fines and possible loss of your provider number.

E. s, PT, DPT, OCS

s Orthopedic & Spine Rehabilitation, Inc.

Bonita Springs, Fla

-- In PTManager , " " <sacspine@m...>

wrote:

> Let's say that I have a PT treating a patient in the clinic. Then

there is a PT Aide treating a patient at the same time. The

question I have been asked is this: Because the PT is actually

seeing the patient 1-on-1 that they are working with, is it possible

to still " supervise " the aide? Or would both patients need to be

billed using a group code even though they were being treated by two

separate people?

>

> I would think that if the aide requires assistance due to a PT

decision or intervention being needed, then the PT now is taking

time away from their primary patient and effectively treating

another patient. This case would be the group instance for that

time period, but if there was no intervention required beyond the

initial greeting and assessment by the PT prior to turning them over

to the aide for the session-I would think that there would be no

problem with the concept that the PT could " supervise " what was

going on in the next room or table.

>

> But I would love to be directed to a legal authority on this.

>

>

> Sac Spine & PT

>

>