#bossproblems

So, I work full time as a clinical director of a small PT office. It's just me, our PT tech/Secretary, and a part-time PTA (she works as needed, and when I take vacation). I wouldn't say I love my job, but it's enjoyable and challenging, both with seeing different diagnoses, different ages of patients, and dealing with the ever-changing insurance. My office is a very distant satellite clinic (like 400 miles from our home office) so we don't even do any of the insurance verifications (if a patient has a co-pay, how many visits allowed, etc) or the billing. But we still have to know a fair amount about the billing and insurance to be able to answer patient's questions on-site, and to make our business as efficient and profitable as possible.

Now, I know some people don't want to hear about that side of things. That we are healing doctors and shouldn't be just thinking about making money, and I don't. I can honestly say that I treat every patient the same, regardless of their insurance and how well, or not well, we get reimbursed. I even convinced my boss (yes I still have one) to take a pro bono case recently.

But the boss does have expectations and target numbers to reach. With him not being on-site, and staying busy seeing patients of his own, and managing 4 PT clinics, it's safe to say that he doesn't know our clinic like we do. He doesn't understand why our numbers are maybe not as good as his other clinics. And with looking at some of his samples of notes and charges, I can say his documentation is, to say the least, not justifying what he charges. And I REFUSE to bill unethically. I've had this discussion with my husband, and he said that I'm too black and white in this regard. Like there's no gray area. But I feel like with PT services, there is no gray area. You either did the service or you didn't, right? And you either saw the patient for 25 minutes or 26 minutes. So when we have our monthly meeting, I'm sure I will basically told, again, that I need to bill "appropriately" (aka more) for our services. And that I shouldn't downplay or undervalue what we do. And might I add that I have still met his monthly goal numbers for new patients and patient visits, it's just he always wants more.

And I DO believe in what we do, and that we know more than people think we do. I find a lot of patients, or people in general, don't know what a PT is, or does, or how much education is required, or the various conditions that we treat. And that is partly our fault as a profession, not educating the public about all the different diagnoses we can treat. And I don't want this to sound like an ad for PT, but we can help with so many different types problems, from post-surgical rehab, neck and back pain, work and sport related injuries, headaches, then all the neuro conditions like Parkinson's and post-stroke.

So again, I wouldn't say the I love my job, but I'm passionate about offering the best patient care, advocating for the PT profession, and helping people reach their goals, whether it be sleeping without waking from pain, or playing football again.