At Measurable Solutions we saw that many PT’s became concerned and uncertain about the future of their practice shortly after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010. Wild guesses and conflicting opinions pervaded the entire healthcare community. It seemed no one could really say how this new program would actually affect them. It’s now been nearly 6 years since the ACA was signed into law, and we are going to take a fresh look at how it is actually impacting the practices of physical therapists around the country.

Increased Patient Loads

Many physical therapists have seen a large increase in the amount of patients they are seeing daily. One survey showed that PTs who were seeing an average of 5 to 6 patients a day before ACA are now seeing 8-9. Part of the reason for this is the blanket accessibility of the ACA. One of the goals set out by this act was to make healthcare easily accessible to every US citizen.

Some PTs have complained that this increased patient load has been overwhelming, or made it harder for them to really take time with each patient they see. Others have thrived with the extra work load. They have been able to organize their practices in such a way as to make the most of this shift.

Decreased Reimbursements

The ACA set out to make healthcare accessible to all Americans. At the same time, law makers were trying to reduce healthcare costs as much as possible. Altering healthcare reimbursements became one of the targets zeroed in on for achieving a balance between both of these goals.

Sheree DiBiase, Lake City PT, had this to say about the change: “We have seen a reduction in visits allowed for our consumers, a reduction in reimbursement of up to 20-40% per visit, and consolidation of insurance carriers who are controlling the rate of this reimbursement like never before.”

Decreasing reimbursements are also contributing to PTs packing in more appointments per day, as we covered earlier. As they make less per patient, PTs are now trying to fit more and more patients into their busy schedule in an effort to keep the lights on at their practice.

Summary of Part 1

It is important that you, as a business owner, remember that there are solutions to the new challenges facing PTs in today’s healthcare environment. Many PTs have had struggles with the increased quantities of patients and decreased reimbursements, but we have seen our clients thrive and expand their practices continuously even during these last few years.

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