Last Friday, something important happened in Washington DC.

Automatic spending cuts were triggered, cuts that will lead to
a reduction of $11 billion in payments to healthcare providers
(including physical therapists) for a variety of s...ervices.

That equates to a 2% reduction in Medicare payments.

It's very likely that private insurers will follow.

Not many are happy about it, including the President. (In fact, his
exact words were "Forced budget cuts are dumb").

Patients will feel the impact.

There are 47 million Medicare patients in the United States (15% of
the population) and soon, they may have a tough time finding providers.

THE IMPACT FOR PHYSICAL THERAPY PRIVATE PRACTICE?

The more Medicare patients in a practice and the lower the profit margins,
the greater the hit on the practice.

Such practices may be forced, out of necessity, to turn away some Medicare
patients.

Here's the real tipping point.

The Medicare Multiple Procedure Payment Reduction (MPPR), set to go into
effect on April 1, 2013 (despite the best efforts of the APTA) will result
in a 6-7% decrease in payments for outpatient therapy services unless
Congress takes action to stop it.

This adds insult to injury, because we already experienced a 6-7% payment cut in 2011.

In 2013, the combination of the federal payment cuts and MPPR could lead to a
FURTHER 9% cut in Medicare payments.

PTs aren't the only ones affected.

According to Dr. Jeremy Lazarus, president of the American Medical Association in
an article on CNN:

"Over the last 12 years, Medicare payments to physicians have increased by only 4%,
while the cost of providing care has jumped 20%"

In fact, Congress has blocked Medicare payment cuts from happening more than 20
times in the past 10 years.

What if they can't continue to block payment cuts anymore?

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO ABOUT THIS?

Asking members of Congress to delay implementation of MPPR is a startSee More