ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

What does it say about a group of professionals that can't agree on what titles to use to describe themselves? Several years ago I wrote a post entitled " Why students will be making elevator speeches to define occupational therapy for the next 100 years ."  The issue behind this is that some occupational therapists believe that the public does not recognize what the profession does and that it is important to have a handy 1 minute description.  The post describes the fact that the profession serially re-defines occupational therapy and that the constant tinkering with definitions contributes to the confusion. The problem that some people in the occupational therapy profession have with their self-identity now extends to the title that they want to use to represent themselves and whether or not they want to even use the national credentials that they have earned and that have given them the right to apply for state licensing. One point of genesis of this problem

Last year I wrote several blog posts about the devastating advocacy position taken by AOTA to remove the Medicare therapy caps that caused a 'paygo' impact on services provided by occupational therapy assistants. In short, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 lifted the Medicare therapy caps and was 'paid for' by an agreement that OTA services under Medicare Part B would have to be paid at 85% of the standard rate whenever that therapy was delivered in whole or in part by an OTA. Professional lobbyists and policy analysts at AOTA were surprised by this 'last minute' inclusion of a payment differential even though the House Rules Committee clearly included this language in the document summary that was sent to the CBO for scoring prior to the legislation being passed.  As a result of their inattention, no one was alerted to this dangerous language, no one could advocate against it, and OTA practice was severely damaged.  It was a colossal and inexcusable poli