Practice Experience Podcast: Exploring the Political Environment as a PT

October is National Physical Therapy Month—an event meant to celebrate physical therapy, spread awareness around the profession, and advocate for its importance throughout the country. This year, the idea of PT awareness and advocacy takes on a greater significance in a hotly contentious election. And even though many PTs may shy away from politics in general, the fact remains that elections have consequences and every vote matters. 

In this episode of The Practice Experience Podcast, Dr. Heidi Jannenga, PT, DPT, ATC, Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer at WebPT, and Dr. Nikesh "Nick" Patel, PT, DPT, Executive Director at the APTQI (Alliance for Physical Therapy Quality and Innovation), sit down to explore the current political environment and what that means for PT.

To help you engage in the politics of PT and tackle the issues facing our profession, Heidi and Nick will take us to Capitol Hill and beyond, discussing subjects such as: 

• Using stories to advocate for PT’s value;
• Empowering voters of all types; and
• Advocating for the bigger picture.

Episode Highlights: Focus on Patient Advocacy

On APTQI’s alliance

Nick: The alliance is committed to not just advocating for the profession but, more importantly, pooling the resources together. Not just financially; we pool our people, which is probably our biggest asset for any organization. And we pinpoint the biggest pain points for physical therapists. Then we go out and do something about it. It's a growing membership. We're up to 26 companies now.

On the power of stories

Nick: Stories are incredibly powerful. You’ve got to get that story in front of the right person. And that could be a member of Congress, that could be a regulator, that could be an insurance company, or that could be your directors or your managers inside your own company that have a vehicle to get that story out into the public. It could even be the editor of your local newspaper. It's wonderful that right now, there are dozens of ways to get the story of physical therapy out there—much more than when I was in school and starting out. 

On empowering the physical therapy vote

Nick: We all know where we are politically in this country, and there's a lot of negative results around that, but the one that makes me the most sad is encountering people who feel, “Whatever I say doesn't matter.” I have had conversations with folks who are probably as far away from my political leanings as you can get. And I have talked to them about physical therapy issues, thinking there's no way in heck this person's gonna agree with me on this…And the wonderful thing that you have to realize when it comes to therapy is our issues are not red and they're not blue. They're very purple.

On state vs. federal advocacy

Nick: You have to figure out the best place that you're going to advocate for your particular issues. If you're at the state level, you're talking about things like your practice act, which is slightly different from state to state. So if your pet issues are along the lines of direct access, dry needling, or the PT compact, those are all handled at the state level…You still want to get in front of people and share the stories…On the federal level, it's mainly Medicare-type regulations and laws you'll do in DC. Then it’s also things like federal student loan repayment programs and workforce issues that are handled more at the federal level. 

On the proposed rule’s rate cut

Nick: The headline from the proposed rule that was released earlier this year was that they're going to take the fee schedule down by a minus 2.8% for the rate starting in 2025…But I would say that for all of us, one thing to keep in mind is those numbers are without any congressional action. And as in years past—like they did this year and for the last few years before that—Congress has stepped in to add some more money into the fee schedule, which would sort of mitigate a little bit of that cut. We have every indication to assume Congress is working on a similar package again for 2025.

On advocating for PT’s societal impact

Nick: What's your effect on the community and what's your effect on the economy? You may not realize that in a month, but if you save three or four of your patients from needing round-the-clock care or from having to move in with their kids, that's a big deal. Think of the big picture—take a step back, get out of your own clinic view, and think about the societal and community views. I feel like we can paint a better picture from the societal impacts of what we do, especially as it relates to maintaining independence, better than almost any provider.

Listen and subscribe to The Practice Experience Podcast:

[Apple Podcasts] [Spotify] [Google Podcasts] [RSS]

‍