Guest guest Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 American Chiro Network rep has been calling my office for us to sign up to accept $75 and $65 reimbursement. Many of the PTPN offices are not accepting the contract. I also called our CA APTA chapter and I was told not to accept the ACN contract. After all it is a chiro network telling us PTs how to do our job. I have difficulty accepting this kind of control from chiros. So please hold on to the contract and do not accept it. CAPTA has asked us to go to the chapter website and they have templates of letters to be written to Senators and also to UHC. Our expenses of running a private practise is getting harder and harder as years go by. Even to hire a staff PT is costing approx $38- $40 per hour. Rents are going up. Let's join to gather to fight this problem as it is going to have a serious effect to our pocket books. Hiten Dave' PT Some thoughts on ACN and Corporate PT I wanted to step onto my soap box for a minute, and rant about what large corporate PT practices are doing to smaller PT-owned practices. I wrote recently asking of other's experience with United HealthCare/ACN offering very low reimbursement rates for PT. Here, in California, ACN/United Healthcare is offering $75 for an eval and $65 for a visit " take it or leave it. " I belong to a PT office managers group and learned that one of the practices located less than 20 miles from our office had been offered a contract for $105 per eval and $95 per visit by ACN/UHC, over 25% above our offer. I called my contact at ACN inquiring if we, too, could get the same rate. I was told that in the area 20 miles away, there were no large, corporate-owned PT clinics. Since this clinic is in an area that has a certain percentage of employees covered by UHC, UHC offered this clinic a better contract; no one else in the area had agreed to the low rates. Where we are, we have two corporate owned or managed PT clinics which signed up immediately for the low rates. Had the corporations held out for better rates, we all would have benefitted. By the way, did you see the report in the Wall Street Journal about the CEO of United Health who earns $6M a year and has $1.6 BILLION in stock options? Viel, Office Manager Mt. Eden Physical Therapy 19845 Lake Chabot Road, Suite 205 Castro Valley, CA 94546 mt_eden_pt@... Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Sick of working for someone else? Tired of fighting against POPTS? Ready to quit the corporate nonsense of large organizations? Visit www.InHomeRehab.com. PTManager encourages participation in your professional association. Join APTA, AOTA or ASHA and participate now! Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 I am one of the few physical therapist in the area who took United Healthcare in the first place because of there low rates. I just received this crazy letter from the ACN about the paper work I have to send in for an eval and then the aurthorization of treatment for the peanuts they are going to pay. I am opting out of the insurance and we are not taking that insurance any longer. In time the employees will complain of the benefits and this will prompt the company to look for different types of insurance that are reasonable. If no one wants to take it then how does a network survive. I think this will be the move as far as dealing with this situation. I would also write a letter to the senator and congressman as well as the higher up in the company who deal with the stock holders. The CEO making 6 million is crazy. Onuwa Terry, PT, DPT Terry Physical Therapy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 In Western NY, Independent Health $50 eval , $38.50 follow up reimbursement, Worker's comp/ no-fault approx $73 for eval and treatment first visit , $48 for followups. Would love to have your reimbursement problems. Mark Milleville Pt Wheatfield Physical Therapy New York Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 Once again a series of posts has painted the distressing picture of third-party control of practice. Please realize, especially as we struggle for autonomy, that the primary leash is not in the hands of doctors, but third-party payers. United HealthCare's use of it's size to lower prices (NOT a market force) and the detestable CEO salary reported by Viel are, however odious, actually beside the point here. The forces of note are: 1. Medical care is taking up an ever greater portion of GDP, and 2. Consumers are searching out lower insurance premiums (remember that in this world of employer-provided medical insurance, business is a consumer). Who can be surprised at how third parties have behaved in this environment? Dave Hiten says that he has " difficulty accepting this kind of control from [ACN] " because chiropractors are behind it. But is it any more fair to have a non-chiro bureaucrat in charge of your practice (or your own personal health care)? The fact is that it's all rotten, and not because this or that provider is not satisfied with his piece of the third-party pie. It's rotten because the power to determine how to take care of oneself has been assigned by law and regulation to distant third-parties. This is a mess too large to respond to tinkering. The only fair way to apportion services is to allow the PATIENT to make the cost-benefit analysis. Make the current system go away. Support HSAs! Dave Milano, PT, Director of Rehab Services Laurel Health System 32-36 Central Ave. Wellsboro, PA 16901 dmilano@... Some thoughts on ACN and Corporate PT I wanted to step onto my soap box for a minute, and rant about what large corporate PT practices are doing to smaller PT-owned practices. I wrote recently asking of other's experience with United HealthCare/ACN offering very low reimbursement rates for PT. Here, in California, ACN/United Healthcare is offering $75 for an eval and $65 for a visit " take it or leave it. " I belong to a PT office managers group and learned that one of the practices located less than 20 miles from our office had been offered a contract for $105 per eval and $95 per visit by ACN/UHC, over 25% above our offer. I called my contact at ACN inquiring if we, too, could get the same rate. I was told that in the area 20 miles away, there were no large, corporate-owned PT clinics. Since this clinic is in an area that has a certain percentage of employees covered by UHC, UHC offered this clinic a better contract; no one else in the area had agreed to the low rates. Where we are, we have two corporate owned or managed PT clinics which signed up immediately for the low rates. Had the corporations held out for better rates, we all would have benefitted. By the way, did you see the report in the Wall Street Journal about the CEO of United Health who earns $6M a year and has $1.6 BILLION in stock options? Viel, Office Manager Mt. Eden Physical Therapy 19845 Lake Chabot Road, Suite 205 Castro Valley, CA 94546 mt_eden_pt@... Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Sick of working for someone else? Tired of fighting against POPTS? Ready to quit the corporate nonsense of large organizations? Visit www.InHomeRehab.com. PTManager encourages participation in your professional association. Join APTA, AOTA or ASHA and participate now! Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 This is why I do not accept UHC, do not, will not, never. Thanks, Barker F. II Clinical Director Lakeway Aquatic Therapy & Wellness Center P.O. Box 342348 1927 Lohmans Crossing, Suite 100 Austin, TX 78734 -Office Tel. - Office Fax - Mobile www.lakewayaquatics.com This email and any files transmitted with it may contain PRVILEGED or CONFIDENTIAL information and may be read or used only by the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient of the email or any of its attachments, please be advised that you have received this email in error and that any use, dissemination, distribution, forwarding, printing, or copying of this email or any attached files is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please immediately purge it and all attachments and notify the sender by reply email or contact the sender at the number listed. Some thoughts on ACN and Corporate PT I wanted to step onto my soap box for a minute, and rant about what large corporate PT practices are doing to smaller PT-owned practices. I wrote recently asking of other's experience with United HealthCare/ACN offering very low reimbursement rates for PT. Here, in California, ACN/United Healthcare is offering $75 for an eval and $65 for a visit " take it or leave it. " I belong to a PT office managers group and learned that one of the practices located less than 20 miles from our office had been offered a contract for $105 per eval and $95 per visit by ACN/UHC, over 25% above our offer. I called my contact at ACN inquiring if we, too, could get the same rate. I was told that in the area 20 miles away, there were no large, corporate-owned PT clinics. Since this clinic is in an area that has a certain percentage of employees covered by UHC, UHC offered this clinic a better contract; no one else in the area had agreed to the low rates. Where we are, we have two corporate owned or managed PT clinics which signed up immediately for the low rates. Had the corporations held out for better rates, we all would have benefitted. By the way, did you see the report in the Wall Street Journal about the CEO of United Health who earns $6M a year and has $1.6 BILLION in stock options? Viel, Office Manager Mt. Eden Physical Therapy 19845 Lake Chabot Road, Suite 205 Castro Valley, CA 94546 mt_eden_pt@... Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Sick of working for someone else? Tired of fighting against POPTS? Ready to quit the corporate nonsense of large organizations? Visit www.InHomeRehab.com. PTManager encourages participation in your professional association. Join APTA, AOTA or ASHA and participate now! Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 I would certainly relate with that desire. Unfortunately, many physicians have told me regularly that they don't have time to keep up with who is on what plan so they send them to the clinics who are on every plan. I'm with you on your stance but this is another view from some dependable referral sources. Doug Sparks Advanced Physical Therapy Concepts / APTC www.aptc.biz<http://www.aptc.biz/> doug@... Some thoughts on ACN and Corporate PT I wanted to step onto my soap box for a minute, and rant about what large corporate PT practices are doing to smaller PT-owned practices. I wrote recently asking of other's experience with United HealthCare/ACN offering very low reimbursement rates for PT. Here, in California, ACN/United Healthcare is offering $75 for an eval and $65 for a visit " take it or leave it. " I belong to a PT office managers group and learned that one of the practices located less than 20 miles from our office had been offered a contract for $105 per eval and $95 per visit by ACN/UHC, over 25% above our offer. I called my contact at ACN inquiring if we, too, could get the same rate. I was told that in the area 20 miles away, there were no large, corporate-owned PT clinics. Since this clinic is in an area that has a certain percentage of employees covered by UHC, UHC offered this clinic a better contract; no one else in the area had agreed to the low rates. Where we are, we have two corporate owned or managed PT clinics which signed up immediately for the low rates. Had the corporations held out for better rates, we all would have benefitted. By the way, did you see the report in the Wall Street Journal about the CEO of United Health who earns $6M a year and has $1.6 BILLION in stock options? Viel, Office Manager Mt. Eden Physical Therapy 19845 Lake Chabot Road, Suite 205 Castro Valley, CA 94546 mt_eden_pt@... Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Sick of working for someone else? Tired of fighting against POPTS? Ready to quit the corporate nonsense of large organizations? Visit www.InHomeRehab.com<http://www.inhomerehab.com/>. PTManager encourages participation in your professional association. Join APTA, AOTA or ASHA and participate now! Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 Dave, Appreciated the 'big picture' comments. I'd like to understand more about how you think HSAs will solve this type of problem. I'm not convinced HSAs will eliminate some of the frustration expressed, and here is my reasoning. A person can set up an HSA only if he has a high-deductible health plan (HDHP), which, of course, is marketed by a third party payer. As long as the client stays under the HDHP, his liability for any HSA-paid PT service is dictated by his HDHP policy. So, if a person has an ACN-based HDHP, he will still be incentivized to go to an ACN-contracted PT clinic. Beth Rohrer, PT, DPT Centreville Physical Therapy -- " Milano, Dave " wrote: Once again a series of posts has painted the distressing picture of third-party control of practice. Please realize, especially as we struggle for autonomy, that the primary leash is not in the hands of doctors, but third-party payers. United HealthCare's use of it's size to lower prices (NOT a market force) and the detestable CEO salary reported by Viel are, however odious, actually beside the point here. The forces of note are: 1. Medical care is taking up an ever greater portion of GDP, and 2. Consumers are searching out lower insurance premiums (remember that in this world of employer-provided medical insurance, business is a consumer). Who can be surprised at how third parties have behaved in this environment? Dave Hiten says that he has " difficulty accepting this kind of control from [ACN] " because chiropractors are behind it. But is it any more fair to have a non-chiro bureaucrat in charge of your practice (or your own personal health care)? The fact is that it's all rotten, and not because this or that provider is not satisfied with his piece of the third-party pie. It's rotten because the power to determine how to take care of oneself has been assigned by law and regulation to distant third-parties. This is a mess too large to respond to tinkering. The only fair way to apportion services is to allow the PATIENT to make the cost-benefit analysis. Make the current system go away. Support HSAs! Dave Milano, PT, Director of Rehab Services Laurel Health System 32-36 Central Ave. Wellsboro, PA 16901 dmilano@... Some thoughts on ACN and Corporate PT I wanted to step onto my soap box for a minute, and rant about what large corporate PT practices are doing to smaller PT-owned practices. I wrote recently asking of other's experience with United HealthCare/ACN offering very low reimbursement rates for PT. Here, in California, ACN/United Healthcare is offering $75 for an eval and $65 for a visit " take it or leave it. " I belong to a PT office managers group and learned that one of the practices located less than 20 miles from our office had been offered a contract for $105 per eval and $95 per visit by ACN/UHC, over 25% above our offer. I called my contact at ACN inquiring if we, too, could get the same rate. I was told that in the area 20 miles away, there were no large, corporate-owned PT clinics. Since this clinic is in an area that has a certain percentage of employees covered by UHC, UHC offered this clinic a better contract; no one else in the area had agreed to the low rates. Where we are, we have two corporate owned or managed PT clinics which signed up immediately for the low rates. Had the corporations held out for better rates, we all would have benefitted. By the way, did you see the report in the Wall Street Journal about the CEO of United Health who earns $6M a year and has $1.6 BILLION in stock options? Viel, Office Manager Mt. Eden Physical Therapy 19845 Lake Chabot Road, Suite 205 Castro Valley, CA 94546 mt_eden_pt@... Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Sick of working for someone else? Tired of fighting against POPTS? Ready to quit the corporate nonsense of large organizations? Visit www.InHomeRehab.com. PTManager encourages participation in your professional association. Join APTA, AOTA or ASHA and participate now! Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 HSAs , in general, are not marketed and therefore many of my patients do not even know about the option they have. HSAs are superior as most are HDHP whereby the patient has the option to pay for their cough-colds and minor aches/pain treatments out of pocket. They should bargain a treatment plan/payment with an MD or a PT office whereby they will pay a reduced amount for their visit as they are paying cash for their visit. $2000 or $5000 in deductible will come into picture when they have a catastrophic illness where they need hospital stay. Our second office is experimenting in HSAs rather than traditional Blue Cross PPO plan which we provide to our employees. To begin with, our per employee premium payment expense is reduced 50%. Most of our employees are young who do not have major illness...they hardly go to see an MD except for allergies/colds etc..I have made a deal with a 2 of the MDs in my town to give my employees a discount since they are paying cash..and they do get it. So here the middle-man Insurance co is taken out of the equation as now the pt. goes directly to the provider. My earlier email seems like it was not received in which I wrote about achieving autonomy by campaigning to get TRUE DIRECT ACCESS for PTs. In Calif we have Direct Access but we still have the MD involved in the care..so we do not have a true Direct Access. In my opinion Direct Access is: A pt. can come directly to the PT without seeing an MD. Also the pt. has never seen an MD for his/her current musculo-skeletal condition and they have come into a PT's clinic to receive care. Unless we have Direct Access we are doomed to be played around by Ins Comp/POPTS. Chiros and Podiatrists have it why not PTs?! It is true that our malpractice cost might rise and referring MDs might get upset because now their control is lost, however, they should benefit from direct access as the MDs will now have another referral source from PTs. A PT would not treat a pt if he/she feels that an X-ray or MRI is needed or an MD evaluation is needed before they can continue with the treatment plan. Hiten Dave' PT Some thoughts on ACN and Corporate PT I wanted to step onto my soap box for a minute, and rant about what large corporate PT practices are doing to smaller PT-owned practices. I wrote recently asking of other's experience with United HealthCare/ACN offering very low reimbursement rates for PT. Here, in California, ACN/United Healthcare is offering $75 for an eval and $65 for a visit " take it or leave it. " I belong to a PT office managers group and learned that one of the practices located less than 20 miles from our office had been offered a contract for $105 per eval and $95 per visit by ACN/UHC, over 25% above our offer. I called my contact at ACN inquiring if we, too, could get the same rate. I was told that in the area 20 miles away, there were no large, corporate-owned PT clinics. Since this clinic is in an area that has a certain percentage of employees covered by UHC, UHC offered this clinic a better contract; no one else in the area had agreed to the low rates. Where we are, we have two corporate owned or managed PT clinics which signed up immediately for the low rates. Had the corporations held out for better rates, we all would have benefitted. By the way, did you see the report in the Wall Street Journal about the CEO of United Health who earns $6M a year and has $1.6 BILLION in stock options? Viel, Office Manager Mt. Eden Physical Therapy 19845 Lake Chabot Road, Suite 205 Castro Valley, CA 94546 mt_eden_pt@... Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Sick of working for someone else? Tired of fighting against POPTS? Ready to quit the corporate nonsense of large organizations? Visit www.InHomeRehab.com. PTManager encourages participation in your professional association. Join APTA, AOTA or ASHA and participate now! Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 22, 2006 Report Share Posted April 22, 2006 Beth, I fear you are correct as I had previously communicated to Dave. These HSA plans will be marketed as parts of various networks and once again we will be stuck with the crumbs as dictated by third parties. Until such time as we are able to simply say " No! " we will likely be at the mercy of others. As previously mentioned by another poster, the rise of corporate ownership has to a great degree contributed to our problem by their willingness to take less and more dubiously do more by extending length of stays and fraudulently billing for services never rendered. Until we are willing to take the stand that control equals ownership and vice versa we will continue to be at the mercy of others. Physicians long ago recognized this by ensuring sole ownership by licensees as dictated by many if not most if not all state medical boards. Regards, Mark F. Schwall, PT www.futurephysicaltherapy.com Some thoughts on ACN and Corporate PT I wanted to step onto my soap box for a minute, and rant about what large corporate PT practices are doing to smaller PT-owned practices. I wrote recently asking of other's experience with United HealthCare/ACN offering very low reimbursement rates for PT. Here, in California, ACN/United Healthcare is offering $75 for an eval and $65 for a visit " take it or leave it. " I belong to a PT office managers group and learned that one of the practices located less than 20 miles from our office had been offered a contract for $105 per eval and $95 per visit by ACN/UHC, over 25% above our offer. I called my contact at ACN inquiring if we, too, could get the same rate. I was told that in the area 20 miles away, there were no large, corporate-owned PT clinics. Since this clinic is in an area that has a certain percentage of employees covered by UHC, UHC offered this clinic a better contract; no one else in the area had agreed to the low rates. Where we are, we have two corporate owned or managed PT clinics which signed up immediately for the low rates. Had the corporations held out for better rates, we all would have benefitted. By the way, did you see the report in the Wall Street Journal about the CEO of United Health who earns $6M a year and has $1.6 BILLION in stock options? Viel, Office Manager Mt. Eden Physical Therapy 19845 Lake Chabot Road, Suite 205 Castro Valley, CA 94546 mt_eden_pt@... Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Sick of working for someone else? Tired of fighting against POPTS? Ready to quit the corporate nonsense of large organizations? Visit www.InHomeRehab.com. PTManager encourages participation in your professional association. Join APTA, AOTA or ASHA and participate now! Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 22, 2006 Report Share Posted April 22, 2006 The following is the latest info on SB899, the CA workers Comp bill. The following are the changes proposed. I do not see a name of any PT and I am assuming this is a slight error, hopefully PTs are included in " other providers " . I am hoping that a PT in private practice who actually treats patients and not just manages a practice, sits on the review committee. I am also sending a copy of this info to the CA chapter of APTA and voicing my concern. I am hoping every PT in Ca should do the same. Hiten Dave' PT In Private practice since 1986 Pleasanton PT/Back on Track PT CA -- Bradshaw Says New Committee Will Tackle Guidelines: General 04/20/06 California Labor Secretary Bradshaw said Wednesday that the Division of Workers' Compensation will release proposed regulations in about two weeks that would create a medical review committee to take the state's utilization-review system beyond American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) treatment guidelines. Bradshaw made herself available for media interviews in conjunction with the second anniversary of the signing of Senate Bill 899. She touted the success of the reform bill and said regulators are taking a careful, deliberate approach toward further system changes. One of those steps will be adoption of a more comprehensive set of treatment guidelines, as mandated by SB 899. The reform bill imposed ACOEM as a stop-gap until the DWC produced a more thorough set of guidelines. Bradshaw said the proposed medical review committee will consist of medical doctors, chiropractors and other providers appointed by the DWC administrative director. " The reality is nobody is going to be happy with one set (of guidelines), " Bradshaw said. " The legislature adapted ACOEM and that was the best at the time. Now what we are going to do is create the medical review committee to look at adjustments that need to be made, and (the committee) is going to constantly evaluate it. " Carlyle Brakensiek, executive vice president of the California Society of Industrial Medicine and Surgery, said it sounds like the DWC is on the right track. He said DWC acting Administrative Director Nevans has described the medical review committee as a " blue-ribbon panel. " Brakensiek said one of the problems with the use of ACOEM is they do not cover the wide range of injuries experienced in industrial medicine, in part because the panel of experts that crafted them did not include some specialists. He said no orthopedic surgeon was on the ACOEM panel and only one chiropractor participated. And he happened to be an employee of Washington state's monopoly workers' comp insurer, Brakensiek said. As a result, ACOEM has no guidelines for common industrial ailments, such as head trauma or even headaches, which are commonly experienced by injured workers due to exposure to toxic fumes, he said. Brakensiek said the medical review committee could fill in the gaps. " We would hope the panel of experts will be able to expand on the number of injuries over which there will be recognized treating guidelines and expand the number of modalities that are recognized, " he said. One common complaint by medical providers and injured-worker advocates is that claims adjusters routinely deny care because the treatment plan is not included in ACOEM. Bradshaw said regulations recently sent to the Office of Administrative Law for final approval should alleviate that problem. The so-called utilization-review penalty regulations state explicitly that claims adjusters may not use the absence of mention by ACOEM as a reason for denying care, and (these regulations) create stiff penalties against insurers, employers and third-party administrators that show a pattern and practice of inappropriately denying or delaying medical care. Some thoughts on ACN and Corporate PT I wanted to step onto my soap box for a minute, and rant about what large corporate PT practices are doing to smaller PT-owned practices. I wrote recently asking of other's experience with United HealthCare/ACN offering very low reimbursement rates for PT. Here, in California, ACN/United Healthcare is offering $75 for an eval and $65 for a visit " take it or leave it. " I belong to a PT office managers group and learned that one of the practices located less than 20 miles from our office had been offered a contract for $105 per eval and $95 per visit by ACN/UHC, over 25% above our offer. I called my contact at ACN inquiring if we, too, could get the same rate. I was told that in the area 20 miles away, there were no large, corporate-owned PT clinics. Since this clinic is in an area that has a certain percentage of employees covered by UHC, UHC offered this clinic a better contract; no one else in the area had agreed to the low rates. Where we are, we have two corporate owned or managed PT clinics which signed up immediately for the low rates. Had the corporations held out for better rates, we all would have benefitted. By the way, did you see the report in the Wall Street Journal about the CEO of United Health who earns $6M a year and has $1.6 BILLION in stock options? Viel, Office Manager Mt. Eden Physical Therapy 19845 Lake Chabot Road, Suite 205 Castro Valley, CA 94546 mt_eden_pt@... Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Sick of working for someone else? Tired of fighting against POPTS? Ready to quit the corporate nonsense of large organizations? Visit www.InHomeRehab.com. PTManager encourages participation in your professional association. Join APTA, AOTA or ASHA and participate now! Please identify yourself, your discipline and your location in all messages to PTManager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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