ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

Please consider helping an OT student by taking this non-scientific survey so she can gather opinions on what education level is needed for COTAs. The survey is at http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=83x03dmh7libgux672024 Thanks!

Today the March of Dimes released their 2009 premature birth report cards for each state. Premature births are an important issue to discuss for occupational therapists because so many of the children who require OT services have a history of prematurity. Even so-called 'late preterm births' where the children are 34 weeks gestation and older have a higher incidence of learning problems. People will take advantage of the release of this report to politicize the findings as an indictment of the US health care system. This is only partially true because a multitude of social and cultural factors causes this problem, including: MDs practicing defensive medicine and increasingly using 'late preterm' cesarean delivery. Couples opting for fertility treatments that inevitably lead to increased incidence of twin/triple/quad pregnancies (and sometimes more). Poor prenatal care among illegal immigrants and undocumented aliens who do not have health insurance. Poor prenatal he...

From: OT Student Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2009 11:55 AM To: info@abctherapeutics.com Subject: OT student needs help Hi, I just visited your website and found your blog section very interesting. I am a current MOTS student from XXX that is working on a project looking at whether COTAs should be required to have a bachelors degree rather then just an associates. I am wondering if you are able to post this question on your blog as I need feedback from OTRs and COTAs on how they feel about this issue. I would be most grateful. Thank you in advance, OT Student ************************************************************************** Dear OT Student, If you create an online survey (there are several free survey tools available) I will be happy to put the link on my blog. I am not aware of any evidence that supported graduate degrees for OTRs - and this is an important question that should be raised. If more schooling is required and this feeds competence that is fine - but I don't kno...

Occupational therapy payment restrictions, typically referred to as 'therapy caps' on Medicare Part B, are daily concerns for all occupational therapists working in private practice, outpatient clinics, and nursing facilities. AOTA is participating in a long-term project aimed at finding an alternative to the current cap system. RTI International, the entity that was awarded the government contract to conduct this research, states that "CMS envisions a new method of paying for outpatient therapy services that is based on classifying individual beneficiary’s needs and the effectiveness of therapy services, e.g., diagnostic category, functional status, health status. Currently, CMS cannot evaluate or implement this type of approach because CMS does not currently collect the appropriate data elements." RTI is proposing assessment tools to describe the characteristics of Medicare Part B clients. The proposed tool for outpatient settings collects demographic data and co...