Understanding and Ownership

Those that know me well and follow my various blog postings know that I am an adamant advocate that ownership of Physical Therapy services should solely be held by Physical Therapist licensees.  When one considers the myriad of problems and recent scandals impacting our profession including aberrant billing patterns and some that are outright fraudulent and the depth of ignorance regarding almost all practice related compliance it should be a shocking experience. 

I think the explanation of this situation and perhaps the single best defense of my position is summed up best when over one hundred years ago Upton Sinclair wrote "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."  Those who operate services as non-licensees are outside the reach of licensing boards and are thusly unable to be held accountable, it creates an environment whereby those licensees who work for them are at greater risk of exploitation.

Our development as a profession is fully contingent on attaining sole ownership.  Abdicating ownership means abdicating control and without control we will never be fully recognized as a fully developed profession.  Other professions such as physicians and lawyers have recognized this long ago and until we have embraced this concept we will continue to yearn for a recognition we don't yet deserve.