News

As the trusted leader of the physical therapy profession, we are proud to provide the APTA Centennial Lecture Series. This continuing education series features recognized leaders on topics in clinical practice, practice management, payment, and innovation. Live attendance also enables you to earn CEUs. Recordings of prior lectures are also available.

Physical Therapist Management of the Bicyclist

Date: Oct. 22-23

Presenter: Erik Moen, PT

Sponsored by: Chattanooga

Effective July 1, 2021 Montana officially began issuing and accepting PT Compact Privileges. 

Read more about how to obtain compact privileges: https://ptcompact.org/How-to-Get-Privileges

The American Physical Therapy Association recently launched the APTA Physical Therapy Moves Me Ambassador Program to chapters. Through this program, APTA is focused on providing resources that support recruitment of the next generation of physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. This program also seeks to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion within the profession of physical therapy by helping chapters and academic programs focus their community outreach efforts on diverse populations of K-16 students nationwide. We are excited to work together with chapters on this important mission.

APTA staff will be presenting more on the PT Moves Me Ambassador Program to chapter presidents during your upcoming council meeting on Monday, Oct. 18. In the interim, we wanted to share some additional information regarding the program with you here.

The goals of the PT Moves Me Ambassador Program are to:

1. Raise awareness of the profession of physical therapy.
2. Recruit the next generation of physical therapists and physical therapist assistants.
3. Increase diversity within the applicant pool and, ultimately, in the profession.

APTA MT supports the continued use of masks per CDC and CMS guidelines.

APTA MT stands with the Montana Nurses Association and other healthcare groups to encourage continued mask use in public places, including physical therapy clinics.

Did you miss the December 2020 Newsletter in your email? Not to worry, we'll place the link here each "tri-mester". 

December 2020 Newsletter

Board Reports for meeting on January 23, 2021, 9am meeting here. 

Please note the legislative updates have changed many times since the previous reports. They will provide a verbal report on 1/23/21, 9am. Please join us: Link found here. 

Latest update: Jan 4, 2021, 4:52pm:

We at APTA MT have been communicating with State and County Health Offices to ensure PTs and PTAs, and possibly staff, are on the priority list for the vaccination. We have been successful in some counties. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of confusion, lack of plans in most counties due to limited doses each week. This is what we know:

PTs are in Category 1A
12/30/2020: Governor Bullock provided this infographic .  Here is Missoula County infographic .

Missoula County:Update January 4, 2021: Missoula County asks you use this form:

https://bit.ly/3pTCJ3f The link to this form is found on their vaccine info site at https://www.missoulainfo.com/vaccination

Previous updates have been removed since the information changed each day.

Gallatin County: Update Jan 4, 2021, from Gallatin County Health: "Call the County’s call center at 548-0123 to give them a number of interested staff from their practices as well as the best contact person for anyone who has not yet called in. We need to get approximate totals to account for available doses. As we receive these counts from practices, we are sending daily emails to those we have heard from with the invitation to schedule their appointments for vaccine at the Fairgrounds."

Flathead County: Updated 12/31/20, 11:45am: PT/As are on priority list. They vaccinated a few private practice PTs and staff last week when there were doses leftover after the hospitalists were vaccinated. They have vaccinated some staff as doses allowed. They don't have vaccine at this writing (12/31/20, 11:45am), but to check their website, linked here.  The phone number at the top of the page: 406-890-7272 is the best way to reach them about future clinics.

Yellowstone County:  12/31/20, from Riverstone Health: "At this time, demand for COVID-19 vaccine exceeds supply so the Unified Health Command (UHC), following guidance from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the state of Montana, is taking a tiered approach to COVID-19 vaccination in Yellowstone County. Both Billings Clinic and St. Vincent Healthcare are hosting by appointment only COVID-19 vaccination clinics for employees working in healthcare settings and first responders in Yellowstone County. Call St. Vincent Healthcare at 406.237.7050 and Billings Clinic at 406.435.5744 for more information. Healthcare personnel and first responders must show valid credentials (proof of healthcare entity employment, employee badge, etc.) at the time of vaccination. As COVID-19 vaccine supply becomes more available, the UHC will expand vaccination opportunities for additional community members in accordance with federal, state and local guidelines."

Lewis and Clark County: PT/As are on the priority list and we worked with them to distribute the logistics to get PT/As vaccinated at a drive up clinic over the last two days (12/29 and 12/30). If you still need a vaccine, call your county health dept and identify yourself as a PT/A to receive priority on the next round of vaccinations.

Cascade County: UPDATE 12/30/20, 4pm, from Benefis Chief Medical Officer: "Those interested need to fill out the attached survey and demographic sheet and return it to tahneepeppenger@benefis.org.  We may be able to get some in next week (first week of 2021) but it really will depend on them getting the information back to us as quickly as they can. The other we will try to get on the next round."

Ravalli County: Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital has reached out to all Physical Therapy Clinics in Ravalli County (along with other essential health care providers) and have a list of therapists who want the vaccination. "We are in the process of calling them to schedule appointments for vaccinations as the vaccinations become available. Any therapist that lives and works in Ravalli county that has not already sent their name, D.O.B & contact number can email Pett Dunn directly, pdunn@mdmh.org"

Silver Bow County: St. James Hospital has been reaching out to clinics to schedule them for vaccination (Source: Private practice PT).

Rosebud County: We heard Rosebud County has scheduled some PTs at Colstrip Medical Clinic next week, but we aren't sure about Forsyth or IHS in Lame Deer.

Please contact us if you have additional information from your county or if you need us to call your county health office. We will continue to update this news section.

On Monday we launched APTA’s new brand and website, joining the 32 components that have already launched the unified brand. Member response has been positive. We have known issues that we’re addressing, including updating links. Over the last few months, we’ve made minor updates to our brand guidelines for national and chapters. Access the most up-to-date versions of our APTA Chapter Brand Policies and Guidelines and APTA National Brand Guidelines and Policies for reference when implementing the brand. As of June 2020, 54 components have signed up to align with the unified brand. APTA will support components with brand alignment through the end of 2021. Reach out to Alicia Hosmer at aliciahosmer@apta.org with questions or to learn more about the APTA Component Support Program.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has shared resources for workplace response to COVID-19. The document includes a list of general COVID-19 resources grouped by agency, a section with resources on reopening workplaces, and additional industry-specific COVID-19 resources grouped by industry. Suggestions may be sent to OSHA’s Doug Kalinowski.

Responding to APTA advocacy, CMS is providing greater flexibility. APTA summary to come, but the interim rule includes PTs among providers that can furnish telehealth services and is allowing the performance of maintenance therapy by a PTA under Part B: https://cms.gov/files/document/covid-19-physicians-and-practitioners.pdf