04/27/2025
For 24 years, Advanced Rehabilitation Center has been servicing clients. This article made me realize our last battle is against corporate therapy hospitals and franchises. Patients often comment on my busy schedule and high earnings, but they're unaware that our pay has remained the same since 1994, as per a recent APTA study. It appears the government is trying to eliminate us or have franchises provide care solely.
Below article talks about Medicare but if we consider United Health it is by far even worse.
Realities of Healthcare:
A lot of people love to bash health insurance companies because of how they are generally awful entities that make life unnecessarily difficult for patients and clinicians alike.
This is rightfully earned.
Especially given that they do this to line their own pockets with record profits.
However, some people use this to advocate for a single payor system. “Medicare for All” as they say.
Well I want to shed a little insight into why that’s also a terrible idea because those who run Medicare are doing the same thing as the commercial insurance companies that we love to hate.
2025 marks my 10th year practicing as a Physical Therapist.
CMS has determined that my services are less valuable now than they were 10yrs ago.
In physical therapy (in the traditional OP setting), you get paid by CMS (Medicare) for how many minutes you spend providing one on one care w/ patients*
*this means you can only bill for direct pt care minutes not including documentation time*
Per the CMS 2025 Physician Fee Schedule, reimbursement for providers will get for services (CPT codes) provided is as follows:
97110 is the CPT code for therapeutic exercise.
CPT 97110 consists of all the exercises and therapeutic procedures that are necessary to improve a person's strength and movement.
In 2015, Medicare paid $32.54
In 2025, Medicare will pay $28.79
97112 is the code for Neuromuscular Reeducation:
CPT 97112 means neuromuscular reeducation of movement, balance, coordination, kinesthetic sense, posture, and/or proprioception for sitting and/or standing activities.
In 2015, Medicare paid $33.61
In 2025, Medicare pays $32.02
97530 is the code for Therapeutic Activity
CPT 97530 is Therapeutic Activity, the use of a skilled activity in therapy to improve a patient's overall health or functional capacity
In 2015, Medicare paid $35.04
In 2025, Medicare pays $34.61
97140 is the code for manual therapy:
CPT 97140 covers manual therapy techniques such as soft tissue and joint mobilization, manipulation, manual lymphatic drainage, and manual traction
In 2015, Medicare paid $30.03
In 2025, Medicare paid $27.17
This also doesn’t include the fact that any service furnished by a PTA or OTA will get a 15% reduction from these number as of 2021.
Pretty wild right?! Not sure how they expect us to continue to get by with less money each year
But let’s also take a look at the average salary of an employee of CMS
In 2015, the average annual salary for a CMS employee was $106,355.
In 2022, it was $128,325/yr.
An 18% increase. 2.5% raise per year.
[Source: https://lnkd.in/e9bzhi3W ]
So while providers who are the ones actually doing the work get paid less and less by your tax dollars…the administrators who run the system are taking larger chunks of your tax dollars for their salaries and benefits.
Sounds pretty familiar?
Almost like insurance regulation whether government or privatized is all cut from the same cloth.
