Polar Plunge

polar plunge  noun

an event held during the winter where participants enter a body of water despite the low temperature 

(According to wikipedia at least... and trust me the water gets cold in Florida!)

2013 Polar Plunge sponsored by the USA Student Advocacy Forum

The Student Advocacy Forum (SAF) is a student-created and student-led group at USA that takes action to raise awareness of physical therapy and raise funds for research and advocating for PT through political action.  In this case, political parties don't matter... it is about the future of physical therapy and allowing the profession to grow.

SAF caught my attention my second semester; the first project I got involved in was the 2nd Annual Polar Plunge.  I then helped plan the 3rd Polar Plunge and have now graduated and passed the reins down for the 4th Polar Plunge.  I believe this year's will be the best yet!

Throughout the rest of my school career at University of St Augustine I was involved in the Pittsburgh-Marquette Challenge (now the Miami-Marquette Challenge), Federal Advocacy Forum, Snack for PAC, and LogN'Blog to name a few.  Each of these activities allowed students to rally together to fundraise for our profession. (Check out each of these pages to learn more about the events/activities)

My biggest piece of advice now for students who say they don't have the time to get involved because they are busy studying: 

You cannot afford not to get involved.  This is your future! 

If you aren't going to fight for it, who will?

Curious what all this fundraising and advocating is for??  Honestly, it's for the patients!

Here are two hot topics that we are currently working towards:

Medicare Therapy Cap

In 1997, the Balanced Budget Act was passed, placing a cap on the amount of therapy covered by medicare at around $1900/year for physical therapy and speech combined, an extra $1900/year for occupational therapy.  This means that each time a patient comes to therapy, they received services that each have a reimbursement value.  Once that amount hits $1900, medicare stops covering therapy services (not including the exemption process here).
So why does this matter?  For patient's who have experienced a neurological disorder such as a stroke or traumatic brain injury or even some orthopedic dysfunctions that will require extensive therapy often in all three categories (physical, occupational, and speech), this money will run out fast!  We are trying to get rid of this arbitrary number and allow for the necessary therapy to be covered for our patients. Check out this link for a more detailed explanation!

Direct Access  

Currently in the state of Florida, physical therapists can evaluate and treat a patient for 21 days without a referral from a physician.  After the 21st day, it is required that the patient is seen by a physician to sign-off on continued physical therapy.  So what is the problem? One explanation for this is summed up in the picture below:

If you notice, being seen by a physician, a specialist, having imaging done, and then attending physical therapy the average cost is $2,100 - $2,200. However, going to a physical therapist directly only cost on average $900 - $1,000.  

One thing to keep in mind here is that physical therapists have been trained to look for a differential diagnosis or signs that the patient's symptoms are not in our scope of practice and that a patient needs to be seen by their physician.  However if a patient is complaining of knee pain, why see a physician and have imaging done if the pain can be evaluated by a physical therapist and treated without the expensive costs of an x-ray or MRI.  There are always cases where a patient is not appropriate for therapy and needs medical attention, and we are aware of that.  (I personally had a patient once that I knew after two sessions that he was not appropriate for therapy and we called the physician for an MRI for suspected disc involvement.)

So why this post?  The 4th Annual Polar Plunge is coming up fast!  Mark your calendars for Saturday February 1st and join in on the freezing fun. Check out the Advocacy facebook for more information!

If you don't have an advocacy forum at your school but want to start one, leave a comment and I would love to share with you and get your in touch with some current students!

Joy