By: Brady Hill, SVP, Strategy and Corporate Development, and Tom Carroll, CFO
In our first few blog posts, we discussed two primary obstacles for patients being able to see physical therapists at the onset of their MSK condition: cost and administrative hassles (like referrals). But even when those are removed, one large obstacle to access still remains: distance to a clinic. In our research, we’ve found that longer travel times make it challenging for patients to complete their plan of care. Unlike other areas of healthcare, physical therapy requires patients to be engaged in their recovery beyond a single patient visit. For primary care, that acceptable distance is much longer because patients often only see their physician once a year. For surgery, patients will travel several hours to see a specialist. But with PT where patients might need to come to the clinic two to three times per week, patients don’t want to travel more than fifteen minutes. When patients have to travel more than that, they’re much less likely to come to the clinic for their full course of care.
Over the past few years, we’ve carefully analyzed our data to determine where to establish our clinics in New England. We’re working to build a network of clinics in New England that provides over 10 million people with access to high quality physical therapy within a 15-minute drive. This high-density access network not only benefits patients but will allow us to partner with academic medical centers in Boston, Providence, and Portland, ME to offer their long-distance surgical patients easy access to high-quality post-operative care.
As we’ve researched network access, we’ve also observed that lower-income areas are often underserved by physical therapy. Sadly, it’s often in these areas where the communities need the most support. A lack of access to healthy food, outdoor activities, and transportation increases the risk of MSK conditions and makes access to care more challenging. To compound matters, low-income wage earners often lack the flexibility to take time off from work, creating a cycle where unaddressed MSK conditions lead to absenteeism that puts tremendous economic strain on families.
When we at Cypress Health Partners decide where to open new locations, we prioritize where we can give access to the most people, not how much money people in the communities make. For us, it’s been a no-brainer to open new clinics in underserved areas. Despite the challenges of lower reimbursement, we put our patients first, which means our focus is on helping our patients and their communities live healthier lives. Our hope is that payors such as Medicaid will recognize that access to physical therapy and healthier communities generates savings and reduces reliance on pain medications, and that we can work together to build a more sustainable reimbursement model in underserved communities.
At Cypress Health Partners, we’ve made a lot of progress in recruiting physical therapists who reflect the diversity of our patients, but we have a long way to go. In the coming years, we hope to work with the communities we serve and with Medicaid to build a better and more diverse future for physical therapy because we know that Patients want to be treated by providers who look like them, talk like them, and have lived their lives; it is a fundamental component to building trust with your healthcare provider. Together we can work to deliver better quality care to more patients in need; building healthier communities, better outcomes, and a future that we all can be excited about.
Please share your thoughts on how to improve MSK care in underserved communities, including how to improve access in the comments below.