How Much Is Your Quality of Life Worth?

How would you feel if you were told that your health was only worth a certain amount of money? Let's say you had a traumatic brain injury and needed rehabilitation but somebody told you that you were only worth about $2,000 before improving your quality of life just costs too much. This concept sounds ridiculous! Sadly, this is exactly what has been going on for the last 20 years for individuals with Medicare thanks to the Medicare Therapy Cap on the rehabilitation services of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech-Language Pathology Services. In 1997 Congress placed an annual cap on rehabilitation services for those on Medicare. This means that an individual on Medicare is only able to get rehabilitation services each year until they reach this arbitrary monetary amount that was set by congress. The worst part about this for those wanting to see a Physical Therapist is that this arbitrary cap has been set at $1,980, as of 2017, for physical therapy AND speech-language therapy combined. This cap set at $1,980 is just a random number and does not take into account the amount of clinical care needed by individual patients. This means that many people that are covered by Medicare following a stroke, spinal cord injury, Parkinson Disease, or any chronic  condition that lowers an individual's quality of life are not able to get the rehabilitation they need for a higher quality of life because they reach their cap each year before they can reach those functional goals. Some of these people need both physical therapy and speech therapy so with the combined cap they reach their limit rapidly severely limiting the care these patients receive. These individuals can try to extend their therapy cap to get more, but it has to be "medically necessary" which most of the time improving quality of life through outpatient therapy is not going to qualify them for that.  If you are thinking that this all sounds really bad for the patient and for rehabilitation services...then you are right! This is why the American Physical Therapy Association, APTA, believes that it's necessary for a full repeal of the Medicare Therapy Cap to occur. They have been taking action to work with congress to try and get this full repeal to occur. Now I am not just here to vent, I am posting this to inform everyone and give you some ways that you can get involved. The first is to get involved in the Flash Action Strategy occuring this year on September 12-13 which is an annual student led campaign that collaborates with the APTA. This year the campaign is completely focused on the full repeal of the Medicare Therapy Cap. To learn more about this and how to get involved check out this link:

Flash Action Strategy
http://www.apta.org/FAS/

You should also follow the APTA Student Assembly on Twitter @APTASA and like them on Facebook at APTA Student Assembly to keep up with what they are doing during this Flash Action Strategy.

You can also share the Flash Action Strategy graphics, which can be found on the link provided above, on your social media accounts using the hashtag #StopTheCap

To learn more about the Medicare Therapy Cap and find more actions you can take visit the following link:

APTA Medical Therapy Cap Information
http://www.apta.org/FederalIssues/TherapyCap/

Just because something has been done for 20 years does not mean it is the right way and now is the time to get rid of these arbitrary caps that are limiting the outpatient rehabilitation individuals need. If you had to put a price tag on your quality of life...would $1,980 a year be enough?