Advocating for Physical Therapy and Our Patients

Healthcare in our country is quite complex and often confusing. Many times people are unsure if something will be covered and they are concerned about the costs. Physical therapists around the country address this issue by attending the Federal Advocacy Forum (FAF) in Washington D.C.  The sole purpose of the forum is to advocate for patients and advance the profession. The forum is full of passionate individuals who want to transform our society and make sure patients get the care they deserve.

As a physical therapy student, I attended this forum along with 7 PTs and 4 other students including Dr. Eva Norman, owner of Live Your Life^TM who has been participating in the FAF annually for the past 16 years. I attended the forum to learn more about the issues that affect physical therapists and to advocate for my future patients. It was also a great opportunity to network with many other physical therapists and students around the country.

The first day of the forum was spent listening to speakers and prepping for the issues that affect physical therapy.  A few of the issues we really focused on were repealing the therapy cap, increasing the access to physical therapists in rural areas, and a bill to allow physical therapists to privately contract with Medicare beneficiaries. The discussions were full of energy and stories of how these issues are affecting our patients. We then broke off in small groups to further discuss the issues and to practice our speeches that we were going to give to congress the following day.

The next day we went to the U.S. Capitol and met with legislative assistants for the senators and House of Representatives for Minnesota to go over the issues. Each one us took turns talking about why a certain bill is important for our patients. We showed them videos of how our patients were moving on day one compared to today and how effective physical therapy has been for them. We also shared a letter from one of our patients with the representative of Senator Franken.  This letter was so powerful that they requested a copy of it! By the end of the day it was obvious to offices of our MN members of Congress how important physical therapy is for keeping our nation healthy.

As a future physical therapist, I feel it is our duty to advocate for our patients and our profession.  As a profession, we will continue to advocate to make sure patients receive the care that they need. I highly encourage all current physical therapists and students to get actively involved and to attend the federal advocacy forum. You won’t regret it!

Matthew Bennett, SPT

Our guest blogger this week is Matt Bennett, 2nd Year Doctor of Physical Therapy student from St. Catherine University. Matt was presented one of the MNPTA Federal Advocacy Forum Student Scholarships by Dr. Eva Norman, physical therapist and MNPTA Federal Government Affairs Chair. Matt & Dr. Norman represented the 3rd Congressional District.