New Health Model for PTs: Wellness and Prevention

Insurance physical therapy at your hospital or local clinic is steeped in tradition: find the one problem, focus on it, and fix it. The services are reimbursed based on a fee-for-service model. The more care the more payment that is given, regardless of outcomes or future setbacks. Physical therapist (PT) education skews also towards the model of problem-based learning, exam, and intervention. Lost in the mix of the insurance and educational maelstrom is the patient: what other issues are lurking, how do they address the "whole" patient and not just the one body part or pain, and how can they continue living healthy and happy?

Fortunately a new model of PT practice emerged. The Health-Focused Therapy Model (HFPTM) promotes PTs to recommend notions like smoking cessation, regular physical activity, and even nutrition, when/where appropriate. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham produced the new model which hopes to only enhance what PTs currently offer.

Learn about our online courses:

There is much more to be found in our evidenced-based, board-approved online continuing education courses for physical therapists.

Enroll today and progress through our 3 course sequence starting with nutrition basics, then the assessment/prescription process, and finally a specialty focus on select populations and specialized nutrition topics. Complete all 3 courses and earn the title of the Certified Nutritional Physical Therapist (CNPT®). Enroll today and join the movement of PTs wanting to give their patients more!

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Learn about the Top 5 Functional Foods to Fight Inflammation and Pain in Physical Therapy. 

Keywords: continuing education, physical therapy, nutrition counseling, legal, practice act, Enroll today and become a CNPT!

^{Disclaimer: The above article is written as opinion piece and does not convey specific legal and/or practice act advice. Students and participants need to check their State laws, practice act, and other legal restrictions before implementing nutrition interventions or assessments. The consumer of this article and our courses acknowledge that the State laws, practice acts, and restrictions can and do change. The Nutritional Physical Therapy team cannot be held liable for changes to such laws: the student, PT, or person engaged in such nutrition actions are responsible for examining laws and regulation as they see fit.}