Why Medical Liens Are an Important Tool for Your Clinic’s Personal Injury Practice

What happens if you have a personal injury patient with a claim for damages against a wrongdoer (in legal terms, a tortfeasor), but they find themselves in the following situations:

• The patient has no personal injury protection (PIP) or medical payments (Med Pay) coverage available?
• The patient has no health insurance, or their health insurance will not cover all or part of treatment in your clinic.
• The patient had PIP/Med Pay/health insurance, but the benefits have exhausted, and more treatment is needed?

If the patient’s medical treatment is still reasonable, necessary, and related to the injury causing event, a properly completed and filed medical lien can ensure that you receive payment from the at-fault insurance company for the unpaid balance owed. If that insurance company settles with your patient and you have still not been paid for your services, the filed medical lien may force the insurance company to pay twice. First to your patient, and then again to you.

It is important that you use all available PIP and health insurance available to your personal injury patient before you move on to holding bills based on a medical lien. Medical liens are not a substitute to billing PIP, or health insurance once PIP exhausts, as primary first-party payment sources.

As a prerequisite to filing a medical lien, make sure that your clinic discloses to the patient that you use medical liens as part of your billing and collection practices (RCW 60.44.020(2)). This can be accomplished by adding language to your standard intake forms disclosing this business practice at the time treatment begins.

Under RCW 60.44, a medical lien completed and filed in the county where the services were provided puts the tortfeasor’s insurance company on notice that you are owed for services rendered to the wrongfully injured party (your patient). Keep the following points in mind to ensure that medical liens work correctly for your clinic:

• First, your lien must be filed before settlement occurs (RCW 60.44.020).
• Second, any lawsuit to enforce any unpaid lien must be initiated within one (1) year of your lien’s filing date (RCW 60.44.060).
• Third, to be valid, your lien must meet all statutory requirements. The statutory requirements  for completing the lien are simple. Most of the information will come from your patient and/or a police report on any automobile collision that injured the patient. The lien form must be filled out completely and accurately so that the tortfeasor’s insurance company can find the lien when they search the County Auditor’s records under their insured’s name, date of loss, and/or your patient’s name.
• Finally, it is crucial that you provide a copy of the filed lien to the at-fault insurance company so that they are on notice of the lien.

It is important to note that filing a medical lien may, in some circumstances, provide for only partial payment of your outstanding bill. The statute provides that “All said liens for services rendered to any one person as a result of one accident or event, shall not exceed 25 percent of the amount of an award, verdict, report, decision, decree, judgement or settlement.” If the case settles for $10,000, and you have a lien for unpaid balance of $2,500, you may be paid in full if there are no other lienholders. The insurance company should write you a check, or they may simply add your name as a payee on the settlement check. If you do not receive payment of your entire outstanding balance related to the injury causing event on a valid lien and your patient settles their claim, the patient is usually always responsible for the remaining amount.

Once you are paid on a medical lien or agree to accept a compromise amount to settle a lien, your clinic has 30 days to provide the patient with a release of all lien rights (RCW 60.44.060(2)). Although the statute does not require your clinic to file the release with the county auditor, we recommend that your clinic file it (and not pass the filing fee on to the patient) to avoid any issues with any expired but unreleased lien, which could negatively impact your patient or the tortfeasor in the future.

The most frequent arguments we hear against the use of medical liens are the cost of filing the lien, as well as the perceived burden in completing the lien form. Neither should serve as a barrier to the use of medical liens in your personal injury practice.

The current filing fee is $203.50 for the first page, and $1.00 for every page thereafter. There is no need for your medical lien to ever be more than one page. The lien filing fee needs to be viewed as akin to paying for insurance. It is the price to pay for protection when you need it. You only need one case where you have a large balance that goes unpaid from a settlement to understand the benefits and protections offered by filing your lien. Consider the filing fees part of doing business, like insurance.

Completing the medical lien form is actually quite simple, and often you can get all of the information you need to file your lien from a police traffic collision report in a car crash case, from the patient, or from the patient’s attorney. The key pieces of information you need are the name of the at-fault party, the date of loss, the location of the incident in general terms, and the name of the patient. Also ideal to list are the claim number and insurance carrier for the tortfeasor to make sure proper notice and tracking is given to the main parties to the case. Instructions and medical lien forms can be found in our Medical Liens Packet, available on our website at https://www.glpattorneys.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023-Medical-Liens-Informational-Packet-PDF.pdf

One last point to mention is that a valid and enforceable medical lien also gives you collection advantages in the event a patient with a large outstanding medical bill balance is forced to file personal bankruptcy. Without a medical lien, you are an unsecured general creditor (paid pennies on the dollar). With a valid medical lien at the time of your patient filing bankruptcy and taking the steps above, you become a secured creditor and should be paid upon resolution of the personal injury matter. There is a Senate bill currently being considered by the Washington legislature to raise personal injury exemptions for patients that file personal bankruptcy, but also exempts from the bankruptcy process certain subrogation claims and claims subject to medical liens. If this bill becomes law, we will make sure to keep our healthcare community in Washington informed.

In summary, a properly completed and filed medical lien is the best way to ensure that the tortfeasor’s insurance company pays for your personal injury patient’s care that is not otherwise covered by PIP, Med Pay, or health insurance. If the insurance company gives the money for payment of your bills to your patient, and not directly to you, a lien is your best protection. If necessary, you can enforce the lien by pursuing a claim directly against the third-party insurance company. GLP Attorneys is compassionate and committed to ensuring your patients receive the best possible outcome and recovery. We are pleased to offer collaborative resources for you and your staff. An attorney is always available to meet with you about medical liens, insurance, and more. In addition, each year, complimentary, accredited CE seminars are available in person and digitally throughout the state of Washington. Join us for our 2023 Seminar Series, Mastering Your Personal Injury Patient Practice by registering at https://www.glpattorneys.com/provider-resources/seminars/

GLP Personal Injury Attorneys

Did Vision 2020 Advance the PT Profession?

PT friends: what do you think about when you see this? 🤔

My first thought: that slide looks so old school! 😜

I remember researching Vision 2020 for my PT school interviews. Now years later I’m sitting in a room with the people who created this vision as an active leader in the PT profession.

Membership matters. So many PTs I talk to don’t see the value. Look at this slide! Did @aptapics hit all of these objectives 100%? No. Did this vision advance the profession forward? Absolutely! Do we as PTs and PTAs enjoy autonomy, direct access, and increased respect in the medical realm and in our communities? I sure do think so! And to all of you who are already formulating your arguments in the contrary: yes there is so much work to still do. There always will be.

And that is why we are #bettertogether If we want to continue to be seen as the practitioner of choice for musculoskeletal care and get paid fairly for what we do, we need to be united in our effort. Small victories on behalf of the profession are victories for all of us, and it takes our active engagement to get there.

Thank you to the leaders who came before me who helped us get here. And to the PTs who have read this far, will you join me in helping us innovate and lead for the benefit of our patients, colleagues, communities, and society? Membership matters! PAC contributions matter! Any way you can get involved, big or small, counts! 🙌🏼

#choosept #aptapps2022 @pps_apta

From Amanda Scharen Instagram post during 2022 PPS conference. Used with permission

APTA Washington State of the Association

An update from the remarks delivered by APTA Washington President Meryl Gersh at our 2020 Chapter Meeting on October 10.

Thank you for being part of APTA WA. Your activism and care energize and inspire me.

In her 2018 message to the House of Delegates, APTA President Sharon Dunn told us, “Our future awaits, and we have the opportunity, the honor, and the responsibility to shape it. It’s a journey we’ve already begun.”

President Dunn described our transition to an outward-facing vision to transform society by optimizing movement to improve the human experience. To a profession that is recognized not only for its role in recovery and return to function, but also characterized by an increased role in health sustenance and proactive prevention of disease and disability. In our future we will demonstrate our value based on the irrefutable data of our own outcomes and in partnership with our colleagues across disciplines.

Our journey together took a very different path since I first became your president one short year ago, an apocalyptic path that had previously only been described by certain scientists or imagined by science fiction writers. A path that paid little more than lip service to social injustice.

The last time I greeted you in person, albeit with an elbow bump instead of our usual hugs, was on March 14th in Chelan at the PPSIG breakfast business meeting. Three days later our professional and personal worlds as we knew them shut down. Most of us had never known a day of unemployment as physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. Our practices severely curtailed caseloads or closed their doors and furloughed staff. Overnight our members became the technical, professional, legal and reimbursement experts on delivering physical therapy services through telehealth platforms – and generously shared their expertise with all of us. Our colleagues in inpatient settings redefined their roles, pivoting to provide assistance with triage, emergency, and critical care in environments in which some had never worked. All of us prioritized the safe and effective care of our patients, incorporating regulatory guidelines for infection control from a huge and often confusing variety of government and professional sources. Jackie Barry, our executive director, and our office staff provided timely comprehensive updates on our webpage and social media platforms, so that we could make sense of the deluge of information accosting us. We all found novel ways to serve our communities.

I watched with pride and awe as our members formed coalitions to help each other and became part of the network of government efforts to serve the citizens of our state and country. I watched with pride as our members mobilized to once and for all make an impact on the gaping wound of social injustice in our society through the formation of a new Special Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. I facilitated communication and connection where I could and stepped out of the way to observe the remarkable emergence of grassroots leadership in our state association.

While we will continue to encounter choppy waters going forward, we have assumed new roles and incorporated new strategies for patient care. Most of us have been able to return to work. We have come this far together and will surely continue to move our profession forward.

We do not need to be tested to pandemic limits of endurance or by the enormity of societal injustice to conquer some of the great challenges still facing out profession, among them (and again borrowing from President Dunn):

• Payment models that threaten rich patient relationships that have been the hallmark of our profession.
• The burden of student debt that continues to threaten the financial security of our colleagues, as well as decreasing the diversity of our ranks.
• A societal impact that is less than we desire. So many of us feel challenged to provide the kind of care that drew us to this profession in the first place.

In the coming year, as members of the APTA we embark on the celebration of our next century. I pledge to you that we can and we will do more to address these challenges.

We are not starting from ground zero. For the better part of a decade our association has been developing an infrastructure to help us shift payment models, solve the student debt crisis, and heighten provider and consumer awareness about what we do.

If I have learned anything in the last seven months, it’s that, when tested to the limits of our endurance and patience, our members emerge as innovative, dedicated, gracious leaders with boundless energy and compassion for the communities we serve and the colleagues with whom we work – truly servant leaders. Our committed Board of Directors provided wise counsel and thoughtful perspectives at the drop of a hat, and anytime that an “unscheduled” virtual pow-wow was deemed necessary. Thank you to a very special group of colleagues.

Thank you so very much for the privilege of serving as your President and for all that you do, every day, for so many. Your value and my appreciation know no bounds.

Words Matter. Actions Matter More.

Words matter. And today I am at a loss for words. So I turn to the words of our profession and our leaders to guide us through our call to act during our present crisis of social upheaval and what APTA President Sharon Dunn describes as the longstanding shame of our societal “racism and systemic inequality.”

The PTWA mission statement is “to advance the physical therapy profession in the state of Washington through compassion, accountability, representation, and excellence” (CARE). These values lead directly to the Core Values for the Physical Therapist and Physical Therapist Assistant, updated in 2019, to inform the behaviors of all members of our profession. The APTA Code of Ethics for the physical therapist “describes the desired behavior of physical therapists in their multiple roles . . . , addresses multiple aspects of ethical action . . . , and reflects the core values of the physical therapist.” Similarly, the APTA Standards of Ethical Conduct for the Physical Therapist Assistant “delineate the ethical obligations of all physical therapist assistants . . . and provide a foundation for conduct to which all physical therapist assistants shall adhere.” On June 3, 2020 the APTA House of Delegates affirmed the profound connection between the words of the core values and the mandate for ethical conduct in the Code of Ethics and Standards of Ethical Conduct when the delegates integrated the current core values into both documents.

The code of ethics entreats us to respect the inherent dignity and rights of all individuals. We are to be compassionate and trustworthy as we address the rights of all patients and clients. The code implores us to act with integrity in all our professional relationships and roles and to promote “organizational behaviors and business practices that benefit patients and clients and society.” The concluding principle of the code of ethics mandates our participation “in efforts to meet the health needs of people locally, nationally, or globally.”

Yet without intentional, courageous, creative, compassionate ACTION, the language of these documents that guide the moral practice of our profession are merely words. As Dr. Dunn shared in her message of May 31, 2020, “If simply speaking about the problem solved the problem, we would have already solved this” (eg: the inequity of access to health care, the blatant and often violent disregard for the dignity of all individuals, the unparalleled burden of the social determinants of health on marginalized populations).

Words matter. But actions matter more.

Let us resolve to internalize these words and externalize the actions that arise from them. Let us not only demonstrate compassion and respect; let us actively promote them through peaceful demonstration and thoughtful legislation. Let us work in our practice environments, our schools, and our communities to extend access to equitable health care for all individuals. Let us call out against and reverse injustice wherever it appears. Let us “simply” live the values of our profession.

Thank you for all you do every day to enhance the lives of so many. Let us commit to reaching so many more.

Meryl Gersh
PTWA President

Guidelines Regarding Providing PT Patient Care During the COVID-19 Crisis

March 19, 2020

There is still no prohibition that you should cease treating patients in your clinic. Even in communities, such as Alameda County in California, where shelter in place orders have been imposed – healthcare operations are exempt from this prohibition.

Here are some guidelines that we think might help you to decide if and when to provide physical therapy care to your patients:

1. With the underlying premise to “do no harm,” you and your patient(s) must determine if the risk to providing care outweighs the risk of not providing care at this time. We encourage you to reduce community exposure and cancel non-urgent, face-to-face visits where a delay would not result in an adverse outcome.
2. If you do choose to see patients, conduct proper screening procedures for your staff, patients and those individuals accompanying patients to their appointments. Those failing basic screening questions should be redirected back to their home. Identify high risk individuals using the information provided by the CDC.
3. If you do choose to see patients, create a social distancing protocol and appoint a staff member to manage and maintain social distancing whenever possible in your clinics. This would involve utilizing private treatment rooms and modifying schedules to reduce patient-to-patient interactions.
4. If you do choose to see patients, maintain the highest sanitary levels via frequent handwashing/sanitizer use and surface disinfection. Inform patients of your procedures via a posted notice at the time of check-in as well as on your website.
5. Follow guidance from federal, local, and state agencies that may influence how you handle any of the above suggestions.
6. The financial implications of your decisions for your clinic should not be a factor in your decisions regarding treatment of patients during this pandemic.

While providing patient care via telehealth is technically legal for PTs and PTAs in Washington, it is not always paid for by payers. Restrictions on payment for PT provided via telehealth may ease up as this crisis continues. We are advocating for that. Please visit our telehealth web page  for guidance and updates as the COVID-19 crisis continues.

Thank you to our colleagues at APTA and from the California Chapter of the APTA for sharing the guidance they have provided to their members, which has helped us craft this update.

I hope you all stay well!

Meryl Gersh, PTWA President

Is PT Care Allowed During the COVID-19 Ourbreak?

March 17, 2020

Is treatment by PTs and PTAs allowed in light of recent government announcements about social distancing and gatherings of 10 or more people?

The short answer is yes, but…

On March 16, Governor Inslee’s office issued guidance that physical therapy is allowed, guidance that contained requirements for gatherings of fewer than 50 people. King County health officials posted a related message. And the CDC issued guidance for gatherings of more than 10 people in a high risk population. While the definition of an event or gathering does not appear to include a clinical episode of care, clinicians and their coworkers may find the guidance to minimize risk helpful. Some or many of you have already taken similar precautions and then some.

For clinicians looking for a definitive answer about whether they should continue with patient care, there is not one at this time but we will continue to monitor government guidance. We have reached out to the King County Health Department for their specific opinion about care provided by physical therapists and will let you know what we find out.

In the meantime, on March 17, APTA has provided some profession-related guidance that you might find helpful.

Some of you have chosen to close or dramatically reduce clinic operations during this time. PTWA supports your use of your clinical judgement to make these decisions. Others of you have chosen to continue care with increased measures in place to reduce exposure to COVID-19. PTWA supports your use of your clinical judgement in these situations too.

And an answer from the CDC website that we thought you might find somewhat relevant (although the primary market for this message is not PT providers):

Q: Should any diagnostic or therapeutic interventions be withheld due to concerns about transmission of COVID-19?

A: Patients should receive any interventions they would normally receive as standard of care. Patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should be asked to wear a surgical mask as soon as they are identified and be evaluated in a private room with the door closed. Healthcare personnel entering the room should use Standard and Transmission-based Precautions.

When we learn more we will share that information with you. Our website, our Twitter feed, and our Facebook page are the places where we will share new information first.

Meryl Gersh
PTWA President

Hard-Fought Victories and Other Accomplishments Mark the Closing of 2018 for APTA

Two times each year, APTA hosts an hour-long virtual component leadership meeting to provide updates about federal and state government affairs, payment issues, and other activity highlights in the recent past or the near future. In November, I listened to the latest recording on this update – my first one as your newly elected president elect.

We achieved a lot in 2018! Here are some of the victories and accomplishments that APTA staff and President Sharon Dunn talked about during the meeting, some of which you may already know about:

Legislative and Payment Advocacy Victories

• Congress passed a permanent fix to the hard cap on Medicare services in February 2018 after a 21-year advocacy effort. (The law took effect retroactively to January 1, 2018.) No more temporary requests for patches in January (there have been 17 over the past 21 years)! An unfortunate last-minute addition to the bill was a PTA pay differential of 85 percent beginning in 2022, which APTA strongly opposed and is working to change before the effective date.
• Congress also voted to include PTAs as authorized providers in the TRICARE system. On December 18, the Department of Defense published draft rules so by PTAs should be able to get paid to provide treatment to TRICARE patients by early 2020 at the latest.
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will eliminate mandatory Functional Limitations Reporting as of January 1, 2019.
• Legislation that protects PTs and other health care providers who travel across state lines with a sports team became law, after several years of effort. The law provides added legal protections for sports medicine professionals when they’re traveling with professional, high school, college, or national sports teams by extending the provider’s “home state” professional liability insurance to any other state the team may visit. This cooperative effort also involved the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons. We are #bettertogether!
• Physical therapists who are ABPTS Board Certified Electrophysiological Clinical Specialists (ECS) are Medicare approved for reimbursement for the performance of nerve conduction velocity and electromyography studies, and for sensory-evoked potentials studies when permitted by state law.
• The US Department of Veterans Affairs will permit reimbursement for physical therapy services provided via telehealth or virtual technology, regardless of where the provider or patient is located.
• CMS and the Joint Commission agreed that pulse oximetry in the home does NOT require a physician’s order.
• The Physical Therapy Licensure Compact law has passed in 21 states and six are issuing license privileges. An additional 8-10 states are expected to introduce licensure compact legislation in 2019. (Washington will probably begin issuing compact privileges in a few months.)
• Looking forward in 2019: Efforts to support Medicare Advantage plans to include telehealth as part of a basic benefit package will continue.
• The APTA PT Outcomes Registry will meet the requirements for approval by Medicare for the Qualified Clinical Data Registry status reports. Physical therapists will be able to use this registry to meet one of the merit-based incentive reporting requirements, eliminating some duplicative documentation demands.

More Good News

• #Choose PT – our national public relations effort focused on the opioid crisis – continues to have an impact. APTA introduced a second PSA. They also held an online panel discussion with seven perspectives including a patient, a PT, a physician and others. They conducted a one-day September media tour that resulted in 463 airings and reached nearly 109 million people!
• APTA purchased the land on which our new APTA headquarters building will be constructed. More details about building design and a ground breaking to come.
• The American Society of Association Executives awarded a Power of A Gold Award to the APTA, AOTA and ASHA for our cooperative, successful effort in the permanent elimination of the Medicare therapy cap.
• APTA received the Alexandria (VA) Chamber of Commerce Best in Business Award.
• The APTA Minority Scholarship fund exceeded $1 million in scholarship distributions.
• There is a new Council on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Wellness.
• 16 clinical practice guidelines have been published with content from the sections and academies. 44 more are in the works

Anniversary Celebrations

• Physical Therapist Assistants will celebrate their 50^th anniversary in 2019; the first PTAs graduated from PTA programs in 1969. There will be celebrations throughout the year, including an event at CSM. Various chapters are participating in fitness-based PTA10Ks (including Washington) as a way to promote PTA membership in APTA with the goal of increasing it to 10,000 during this anniversary year. It’s currently just below 9,000.
• The APTA will celebrate our 100^th (centennial) anniversary in 2021 with the theme “connect, celebrate, inspire.” Stay tuned for more updates as we move forward to toast this magnificent milestone.

I hope you feel as energized by all of these accomplishments as I do. Many of you participated directly in helping to achieve these victories. Our hard work is paying off!

Meryl Gersh
PTWA President-Elect
PTWA Professional Enhancement Panel Director

PTA SIG is Back with More to Come

Last spring, several of us got together to once and for all bring the PTWA PTA Special Interest Group out of its dormancy.

We jotted down some ideas but really started with a survey that we sent out to all of you in August. Your responses to that survey influenced the directions we will take – although there were not really any surprises. You are interested in continuing education, information about various types of advocacy, and you would like the relationship between PTs and PTAs to improve.

We decided to start getting information out to you via an e-newsletter that we plan to send each month (possibly skipping one of the summer months). We will include some news that we think PTAs will be particularly interested in. We’re also planning to include a clinical pearl in each issue, starting with the next issue.

We’re in the early stages of forming work groups for Continuing Education and Communications.

And we’ll need to hold an election for PTA SIG leadership soon. So stay tuned for the scheduling of the meeting during which that election will be held.

There is much work to be done on the road ahead and several PTA members have already signed up to participate in our efforts. If you have an interest in being involved – or just have something you want to say – please email us at ptasig@ptwa.org.

Vince Nguyenpham, Brendon Larsen, Trent Smith

Ready to Get Involved? How to Get Started

As an SPT and even as a new graduate in the workforce, I always felt that advocacy for my profession was important but was too busy orienting myself to my new profession to even consider being involved on a bigger level. As I developed in my career, I felt called to do more.

Amanda Scharen

Three years into my career, there was a student physical therapist at my clinic who was heavily involved in the APTA. She quickly became one of my mentors in encouraging my involvement in the APTA and asked if I would like to apply with her to be part of a new task force. The task force was addressing an issue that I was interested in, so I decided to apply. A few weeks later, I was disappointed to find out that I had not been selected for the task force due to lack of advocacy experience. I was frustrated – how could I possibly get experience if experience was a prerequisite for getting involved?

I decided to start attending my local PT Pub Nights to network with other like-minded professionals. It was a great way to connect with other professionals in the physical therapy community, and I enjoyed getting a taste of the bigger picture within my profession. After about six months of regularly attending Pub Nights, the organizer told me that she was moving to Boston. When I asked who would be organizing the Seattle events going forward, she said no one had volunteered. Seeing this as an opportunity to take on a leadership role in the local PT community, I asked if I could be the event organizer.

My first PT Pub Night was so much fun and ended up hosting almost 50 attendees. I got to know so many people who were involved in PTWA through these events. Eventually I was approached by Jim Shepherd from the Nominating Committee asking if I would like to run for the House of Delegates. I was elected, which I attribute to how much time I spent building relationships with local PTs at the Pub Night events. As a delegate, I met many esteemed PTs from across the state and found it easier to get involved in committees, meetings and events as my professional network expanded.

For someone who is struggling with where to start, I would recommend starting with something where the only requirement is simply to show up and have an interest. There are PT Pub Nights in Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane. Most metro areas have regular district meetings that anyone can attend. If you are interested in a specific topic or issue, consider joining a special interest group (SIG) or committee. These groups and committees are listed on the PTWA website and are open for members to join. Finally, consider attending Legislative Impact Day. This is a great way to not only connect with other PTs but also to your representatives in Olympia.

Recently, I was elected to Nominating Committee. I am so excited for this opportunity to hopefully seek out people who, like me as a younger professional, want to get involved but don’t know where to start. I hope to show our PT community the benefits of membership and the opportunities both big and small to get involved and make a difference in our wonderful profession.

Amanda Scharen
Nominating Committee member
Delegate to the APTA House of Delegates

Get Inspired and Lead by Example during the Special Olympics 2018 USA Games in Seattle

@2018USAGames. #RiseWithUs #2018USAGames

The Special Olympics oath: (McCallum, 2008)
Let me win,
but if I cannot win
let me be brave
in the attempt

Last summer, I had the opportunity to join physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, students and a few other members of the community who volunteered for a FUNfitness screening program in Everett during last year’s Special Olympics of Washington (SOWA) Summer Games. FUNfitness is part of the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes initiative to assess flexibility, strength, balance and aerobic fitness of the athletes. Introduced in 1997, FUNfitness is a fitness screening event that is part of the Healthy Athletes program and that was developed in collaboration with the APTA.

Lagging healthcare for those with intellectual disabilities culminated in this program of health education and prevention. Despite a mistaken belief that people with intellectual disabilities receive the same or better healthcare than others, they typically receive sub-standard care or virtually no health care at all. (Special Olympics Organization Health). In 2008, the global adult obesity rate was 12 percent compared to 30.9 percent for adults with intellectual disabilities. (Sunders M, 2008). Healthy Athletes has the world’s largest database of health data for people with intellectual disabilities.

During the Healthy Athletes screenings, Special Olympics athletes receive dental, vision, hearing, foot and general health screenings and receive recommendations for improvement after each screening. Physicians and healthcare professionals provide the screening services at tournaments at no cost to Special Olympics athletes. Special Olympics has set a goal of having 100 locations recognized as Healthy Communities by 2020. (Special Olympics Organization Health).

The Special Olympics movement was born out of the work of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a constant champion for those with intellectual disabilities. Today, the mission of Special Olympics Washington (SOWA) is “Special Olympics Washington BUILDS Communities and LEADS in Wellness through Sports and Inclusion. (SOWA website, 2017).

As a veteran orthopedic manual physical therapist I was confident that I could help somewhere, but this new adventure brought a little nervous excitement. I had no idea what I was expected to do and I was not sure what the athletes would expect from me. Special Olympics was something I learned about when I was a child. This early education left me with the impression that I would be working solely with an athletic, pediatric population with intellectual disabilities. Wrong. Well partially wrong. The athletes with intellectual disabilities span from individuals age 8 and upward into adulthood.

Under the direction of Natasja Ysambart, PT, DPT, SOWA Clinical Director, and Vicki Tilley, PT, GCS, Special Olympics consultant and trainer, volunteers were oriented to the FUNfitness screening stations: flexibility, functional strength, balance and aerobic capacity. While we waited for the athletes to finish competitions the Summer Games volunteers talked and learned from one another, particularly from the current UW student. We had fun running through the tests and it was nice to speak to a group that works with pediatric patient populations and those who rehabilitate patients with varied neurologic conditions. We also had a brother and sister team of high school volunteers, incredibly helpful as our extra hands.

The athletes that night shined – in their medals, in their dress attire (many of them stopped for screenings on their way to a big dance) and in their smiles. Once the process got rolling, it really became busy. Having so many athletes come for screening and education is inspirational. Earlier we ate alongside the athletes in their cafeteria dining room. One realizes quickly how much more can be done to educate and empower this population. At-risk populations are enabled to thrive with instruction and improvement of their awareness.

While we scrambled through the testing, I noticed that the athletes who received dental tools from the Special Smiles dentists were especially careful about saving their packages and educational materials as they worked through our busy screening stations. Behavioral change can occur when you educate and provide tools to those who want to improve their quality of life. The athletes were learning a great deal from what we tested and discussed that night. And likewise, I was learning from them.

During our testing I met a woman who was a fabulous athlete as proved during her fitness screening. She was also proud but competitive with her fiancé. She introduced the FUNfitness team to her fiancé, showing off her physical fitness while supporting his work on balance for his long-term health. After all, he is part of her future life.

Another athlete moved me during an educational discussion about stretching and her home exercise program compliance. She was not particularly fond of flexibility exercises. She told me about becoming a leader for the Special Olympic athletes.  After some discussion we concluded that her role as a leader in the athletic community meant that she needed to be a strong example for others. This piece was inspiring and motivational to both of us; we all have to lead by example.

The athletes and volunteers that I met that day were truly motivating. Everyone was excited about their sports performance, the dance that was being held that night and their future.

The Special Olympics USA Games will take place in Seattle from July 1-6, 2018. Hundreds of volunteer providers will be needed to offer screenings for thousands of athletes who will come from around the country to compete. Visit our web page to find more information and for links to sign up to provide screenings or to sign up for other volunteer opportunities.

http://ptwa.org/misc/special-olympics-usa-games-2018

Robin Schoenfeld
PTWA Vice President