My name is Susan and I’m a proud Occupational Therapist. The health of your loved ones in need of care and the future of my profession is at stake. As an OT, I assess a patient’s ability to walk, get in and out of bed, swallow, go to the bathroom, and sit in a chair. I take care of older patients in so many ways, and I love my job.

Greedy rehab and nursing home executives are being given permission to interfere in patients’ therapy plans, and it’s causing real harm. Our jobs are being threatened when we object to treating patients only in a group or if we provide “too much” therapy. Some patients are only getting 15 minutes of Therapy scheduled.

Medicare made necessary changes to the existing system of reimbursement to nursing homes. The change (called PDPM) was to ensure that patient need instead of minutes of therapy was the driving force for payment. Since then, trying to manipulate profits, many rehab companies began mandating group therapy and drastically cutting therapy minutes to reduce the hours they need to pay Therapists, not based on patient need as intended. Medical professionals like me are no longer allowed to decide treatment plans using evidence-based clinical judgment in these buildings. This means you or your family members may not be getting the therapy your tax dollars pay for.

This isn’t just about medical workers though. And it’s not like we’re not asking for raises. We are only asking to be able to provide our patients with the care they need and deserve. Ask the Department of Health and Human Services to stop these companies now and allow caring professionals to determine the right treatments that benefit patients.