As physical therapists we know the scenario quite well. The new patient intake forms come across our desk right before an evaluation and the body chart is completely covered in “X” marks indicating areas of pain. There is no clear nerve root pattern, no dermal pattern, no pattern at all – just X’s spanning across the body. Perhaps there was an initial trauma several years prior, though many times the onset is insidious.

Often times the medication list is extensive and includes opiates or narcotics. During the history taking portion of the evaluation the patients often recounts a long tail of failed medical remedies. Perhaps they have seen countless health care professionals of various types in various locations. Perhaps they express disdain that their physician has sent them to you because in the past physical therapy has done nothing for them. And perhaps a little voice inside our head gives a deep sigh and says “oh dear.”

There is growing concern over distribution and overuse of opioids by chronic pain patients. Medical practitioners are under pressure by third party payers and the medical boards to prescribe in a safe and conservative manner, though due to the addictive nature of the opioids and narcotics, when denied continuous access to medications some patients may seek a string of new physicians.¹ While there is evidence to suggest that opioids can provide analgesic effects to a chronic pain patient for up to eight weeks, they have not been seen to provide pain relief for the same dose after 2 months. ¹

Further conversation with our chronic pain patient may reveal how horrified the patient truly is at how their pain has been managed. We know that most of them are not drug seekers for the sake of drug seeking. Chronic and excruciating pain has lead them to seek whatever may get them through their day and many times the pain medications offer a window of relief.

We as physical therapists are the most equipped health care professionals to treat patients with chronic pain. So why then have we found ourselves beating our heads against our desk when we fail to make them better?

Lorimer Mosely, David Butler, Paul Hodges, and Adriaan Louw suggest that we explain pain to them to get them better. These physical therapists come from various research groups using MRI, Ultrasound imaging, mirrors, and various other techniques to develop a profound understanding of what pain is, how it behaves, and what we can do to treat patients suffering from it.

Books such as Explain Pain by Mosely and Butler (of the Neuro Orthopaedic Institute) use beautiful art and laymen’s terms to explain these concepts to patients and healthcare providers alike.² Mosely’s book Painful Yarns uses a collection of relatable stories to explain how pain behaves (the Australian term Yarns means stories)³. The gift that Mosely gives to patients and healthcare providers alike is humor. The reader gains a sense of neuroscience through anecdotes and analogies in a empathetic and lighthearted manner.

It is the job of your brain to protect you. This is a process that has been in place since the day you were born to ensure that your needs were met. When your brain perceives a threat to you, it sends a perceivable message of pain.

The importance of this concept is that the ability to correctly and succinctly explain pain to patients is producing results. Anecdotally, it has changed the way I practice. The concept lies in explaining the concept of neuroplasticity, the brain homunculus, and physiological adaptations that take place as a result of the this process. Adriaan Louw of the Spine and Pain Institute explains that the role the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system in his series of books Why I Hurt.⁴ This series of books covers topics including general pain, back surgery, whiplash, as well as pelvic pain.

Louw demonstrates his conversations with patients in several continuing education formats. At the end of the day we as therapists are generally good at reviewing evidence based literature regarding pain, neuroscience, and therapeutic management, though conveying this subject matter to patients with a variety of educational and psychosocial backgrounds can be a challenge. The following dialogue is one that I commonly use during evaluations and treatment sessions with patients. I find that this has enhanced my ability to gain trust and build rapport with chronic pain patients.

I begin by stating that their case is one that I am familiar with. Many patients feel that their symptoms may be baffling since no single health care professional has been able to explain to them why or how their symptoms persist. Often times I hold this conversation during manual therapy when the patient is lying still and is in a relaxed and comfortable position. I assure them that their symptoms are not in their head, though the brain plays an important role in the experience of pain.

I state the following “It is the job of your brain to protect you. This is a process that has been in place since the day you were born to ensure that your needs were met. When your brain perceives a threat to you, it sends a perceivable message of pain. For example, if you fall and sprain your ankle, your brain will tell you that it hurts, so that you will stop walking on it and allow the tendons to rest.

However if you were to step off a curb and sprain your ankle, and a bus was coming at you full speed, your brain would not inform you of pain, but to get out of the way of the bus. It is in this manner that the brain decides what the greatest threat to you is.

If there was an initial injury to the patient that resulted in a chronic pain cycle I would recount the following: Your brain acts like a security system to your body, similar to how a security system would protect a house. If someone threw a brick into the front window of your home and robbed it, you would buy a very loud, noisy security system, and perhaps get a guard dog.

This security system may be so sensitive that it went off when anyone came to the door – not just a criminal. Under a high security threat some alarms go off whenever someone approaches the door. Your brain acts in the same manner to protect your body- it will become weary of normal, non-threatening movements, positions, and activities because it wants to protect you. In this way it can become so sensitive that it does not know the difference between a real threat and a perceived threat. I then explain to the patient that the goal of physical therapy is to address the true mechanical threats and to reteach them safe movements.

This dialogue has opened the doors to communication with my patients. My perception of my practice is that I am earning earlier trust and rapport which merits quicker results with evidence based physical therapy treatment of manual therapy, therapeutic activity, and exercise.

1. Fields H. The Doctor’s Dilemma. Neuron. 2011 Feb 24; 69(4): 591–594.
2. Butler D. Mosely L. Explain Pain 2nd Edition. Noigroup Publications; 2013.
3. Mosely L. Painful Yarns. Dancing Giraffe Press; 2007.
4. Louw A. Why I Hurt. International Spine and Pain Institute; 1 editiob; 2013.

Amanda Olson, DPT, PRPC

On April 16, 2015 Congress passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). This act is intended to repeal the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, and is the final and permanent piece of legislation in a long line of annual temporary adjustments since 2003 that had prevented the SGR from activating a large payment cut for physical therapists and other healthcare professionals. Most importantly, MACRA further extends the Medicare therapy cap exceptions process to December 31, 2017, and includes numerous other provisions that will impact physical therapy. With the passage of this law, Congress has laid the groundwork for significant changes to Medicare reimbursement for physical therapists and other health care professionals¹.

Active immediately, physical therapists can expect to see a positive payment update of 0.5% from July of 2015-2019. Physical therapists and other health care professionals who participate in alternative payment models (APM) will receive a 5% bonus annually from 2019-2024, and the fee for service model is retained. In 2026 and beyond, physicians, physical therapists, and other health care professionals in APMs may qualify for a 0.75% annual update. PT’s participating in all other payment plans will receive a 0.25% annual update. Perhaps the most exciting upcoming advancement is the fact that technical support is provided for smaller practices, funded at $20 million per year from 2016 to 2020, to help them participate in APMs or the new fee-for-service incentive program¹.

The rumblings surrounding fee for performance reimbursement will be realized in 2019. Specifically, current quality incentive and payment programs such as the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) will be consolidated and streamlined into a program called the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) beginning in 2019. This change will be best undertaken with early implementation and use of electronic medical records to assist in tracking appropriate reporting². A detailed list of physical therapy outcomes tools and procedures for PQRS reporting can be found at: http://www.apta.org/PQRS/, and http://ptjournal.apta.org/cgi/collection/outcomes_measurement.³

Notably, changes have also been made to the infamous Medicare Cap. MACRA provisions to the Medicare therapy cap include an annual amount of $1,940 for physical therapy and speech language pathology combined in 2015, with a separate $1,940 cap for occupational therapy.  Hospital outpatient claims for therapy services with dates of service through December 31, 2017 will continue to apply to the therapy caps. In the event that further physical therapy is deemed medically necessary, providers may obtain an exception to the therapy cap until December 31, 2017. The manual medical review process at $3,700 has been replaced with a new medical review process that becomes effective 90 days after enactment of the law, which will be right around the corner in mid-July, 2015. This new annual review process applies to exception requests for which a medical review had not been conducted by the July date.¹

In the private practice domain, physical therapists can expect to continue to report in the PQRS program in 2015, however changes to to the quality reporting system will take place in 2019. Beginning in 2019, the current quality programs under Medicare part B for physicians (PQRS, Value-Based Modifier, EHR Meaningful Use) will be consolidated and replaced with a new program called the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)¹. Performance in MIPS will be based on 4 domains: quality, resource use, meaningful use, and clinical practice improvement activities.  MIPS will implement penalties for low performing clinicians and incentives for high-performing providers and practices. Bonuses and penalties under MIPS begin at 4% in 2019 and increase to 9% in 2022.  Data-reporting under MIPS will be via electronic reporting mechanisms (such as registries). Participation in a qualified clinical data registry would also count as a clinical practice improvement activity¹. It is again here where we see the value in early adoption of electronic medical record use.

All of these changes and reform should result in better and more accurate reimbursement according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). “It’s an exciting time, to have this finally happening,” Helene Fearon, PT, FAPTA, said at the conclusion of the June 6, 2015 APTA session titled “Payment for Physical Therapy Care Is Changing.” The session looked at the past, present, and future of efforts to shift payment for physical therapist services under Medicare from a fee-for-service model to what another speaker, APTA Senior Director of Payment and Practice Management Carmen Elliott, called a “value mindset.”⁴

A look back at the Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate under the Affordable Act to meet the “triple aim” of payment reform “better quality of care, improved public health, and lower cost”and APTA’s development of the Physical Therapy Classification and Payment System (PTCPS). The PTCPS differentiates Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) evaluation codes by level of complexity for the physical therapist (PT), and further differentiates intervention codes by severity of patient condition and intensity of PT services provided. Fearon, considered one of the profession’s preeminent experts on documentation, coding, billing, and payment-related policy issues, provides greater detail on the changes for which APTA has been working, listed in full at www.apta.org/PTCPS/.⁴

These revisions are intended to change the payment model from isolated visit to episodic, and considers the clinical judgment of the PT, while taking into account the severity of the condition and intensity of PT’s involvement in care. In addition to APTA’s PTCPS page, two additional documents on alternative payment methodology as particularly relevant for PT’s the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual and the ICF (International Classification of Function, Disease, and Health) “beginners guide” Toward a Common Language for Functioning, Disability, and Health.⁴

1. Highlights of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (Pub. L. 114-10). American Physical Therapy Association. Available at: http://www.apta.org/Payment/Medicare/. Accessed on June 24, 2015.
2. Medicare Physician Quaility Reporting System. American Physical Therapy Association. Available at: http://www.apta.org/PQRS/ . Accessed on June 24,2015.
3. Outocmes Measurement. American Physical Therapy Association. Available at: http://ptjournal.apta.org/cgi/collection/outcomes_measurement. Accessed on June 24, 2015.
4. Reform Efforts soon will pay off-literally- experts say. American Physical Therapy Association. Available at: http://www.apta.org/NEXT/News/2015/6/6/Reform/. Accessed on June 25th, 2015. -Amanda Olson, DPT