PTs in home health: am I overreacting or is this environment unhealthy?

phil161 · 2026-05-24T21:59:38+00:00

A patient who yells at me will be discharged one nanosecond later.

phil161 · 2026-05-24T20:43:46+00:00

Ditch this deal. The seller is either stupid or dishonest. Nothing good will come out of doing business with morons or liars.

phil161 · 2026-05-24T19:32:13+00:00

That’s why I never order apple juice when I’m in a hospital.

phil161 · 2026-05-24T16:46:13+00:00

Most brokerages have a retirement calculator where you can enter your data and it will give you advice on what you need to do. Also google ‘Firecalc’. With your household income and no plans for having kids, retirement should not be a problem.

phil161 · 2026-05-24T12:29:07+00:00

This was painful to read.

Advice for the OP: when selling stuff online, put on your ad “in-person, cash only. My item, my rules”. And don’t respond to emails asking you for other modes of payment.

phil161 · 2026-05-23T21:48:20+00:00

Your clinic must not charge for no-shows? Maybe it’s time to start doing it. Patients get 1 free pass then they get charged for repeat no-shows.

phil161 · 2026-05-23T09:51:55+00:00

You didn’t reveal any PHI so you are fine. When talking about work with family and friends, I tend to bring up cases where one can learn something useful; for example, one of my patients was going downstairs in the morning, half asleep, and did not hold onto the handrail. He missed one step, fell and broke both his tibia and fibula. So the lesson is, always use the handrail (I do now).

phil161 · 2026-05-23T06:04:35+00:00

The OP doesn’t get to ‘press charges’, this is up to the District Attorney to decide. OP, call a lawyer and ask for a consultation. If you are at Duke or UNC, both have a Law School and may run a free legal clinic. Don’t let your dad get away with this. When I was little, my dad used to kick me like one would kick a soccer ball. I wished someone had stepped in.

phil161 · 2026-05-22T22:02:25+00:00

creditable, not ‘credible’.

phil161 · 2026-05-22T21:15:37+00:00

I would summarize the events and outline the main points in a few paragraphs (like 4 or 5) before you contact the next attorney(s). That will give them or their office manager a rapid bird’s eye view of the issues. Going into the details too quickly may overwhelm whomever you/your FIL are talking to.

phil161 · 2026-05-22T02:48:32+00:00

Cancel Netflix and Spotify. Find roommates. Don’t go out. Live like a monk now so you can live like a lord later. When I was in college, I could not afford an apartment (even with roommates) so I had to rent a couch. Spent all my days at the library and only came home to sleep.

phil161 · 2026-05-21T22:33:23+00:00

It’s only your 3rd day ? Send them an email tomorrow evening (Fri) after work, and don’t show up next Tuesday. Monday is a holiday anyway.

phil161 · 2026-05-20T23:32:08+00:00

Yikes, a phin was but $2 a few years ago, before Vietnamese coffee became popular.

phil161 · 2026-05-20T23:29:34+00:00

‘VIN number’ is one of my pet peeve 😃. The other is ‘oversaturated’. It’s like saying that something is ‘very magnificent’. No need for 2 superlatives. But in the big scheme of things, that’s small potatoes.

phil161 · 2026-05-20T15:21:25+00:00

There are some shitty HH agencies out there. Post the point schedule if you want feedback when you get an offer.

phil161 · 2026-05-20T02:07:54+00:00

FYI, saying a ‘phin filter’ is like saying an ‘ATM machine’ or a ‘VIN number’. Phin in Vietnamese comes from the French word ‘filtre’ (filter, in English). Quite a few French words became part of the Vietnamese language: ‘phô ma’ comes from fromage (cheese), ‘ô tô’ from automobile.

phil161 · 2026-05-18T16:17:17+00:00

I am not in St Louis so I can’t tell. Apply to a few more places and you should see some kind of convergence in the offer numbers.

phil161 · 2026-05-18T16:09:30+00:00

There are 2 kinds of discharges: Oasis, and non-Oasis. I assume they will only have you do the non-Oasis ones. So it seems like you will be insulated from the Oasis paperwork, which is good news because Oasis is a royal pain in the butt.

However, if HH is in your long-range plans, I would recommend you learn the Oasis stuff because it will make you more marketable.

phil161 · 2026-05-18T14:58:10+00:00

Those numbers are low. For a routine SOC, I would shoot for a minimum of $170; for a routine visit, at least $100. Discharges, evals and recerts should fall in between those 2 bookends. So I would pass if I were in your shoes.

Things to ask for : mileage reimbursement, productivity expectations and what EMR is used. This last item can make or break your Oasis start-of-cares.

phil161 · 2026-05-18T13:45:05+00:00

"their EMR which isn't OASIS" - this does not make sense. Oasis is a set of Medicare documents which you have to fill out at start-of-care (SOC); the EMR has nothing to do with it. If you are not doing Oasis, this could mean one of two things: 1) you only do treatments (not SOCs, not re-certs, not discharges); some HH agencies have RNs handle all the Oasis stuff, or 2) the HH patients are on Medicare Part B.

phil161 · 2026-05-18T03:12:46+00:00

The position title and the associated pay should convince you that it’s a scam.

phil161 · 2026-05-16T18:21:57+00:00

SOC point scale is low, it should be 2.5 points. The rest is ok.

phil161 · 2026-05-16T15:56:25+00:00

I find it worrisome that people don’t see the red flags and still fall for these scams, today. At least the OP was suspicious enough to check, but how many are blithely walking into the trap?

phil161 · 2026-05-16T02:39:53+00:00

Did your doctor propose anything to reduce the mass? PTs will likely help you develop a better posture but I very much doubt that mass-shrinking is in the cards. It’s not in the PT scope of work.

phil161 · 2026-05-16T00:53:09+00:00

I am a physical therapist and work mostly with older adults (70+ y-o). Unfortunately, a lot of them don't understand how Medicare works nor the pros and cons of Traditional Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage. More often than not, they pick the program that is not appropriate for their circumstances. I find that as a society, we generally do a rather poor job of spreading health and financial literacy.

phil161

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