Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed on July 23 a Senate bill that would have allowed doctors to legally hire physical therapists, because those partnerships, he said, would increase costs for citizens. This is according to a July 27 article in Chicago Breaking Business.

In Illinois, patients must have a doctor's referral to see a physical therapist, the article stated. But physical therapists can bill insurance providers for their services independently.

"Senate Bill 2635," Quinn said in a letter to the General Assembly, "also incents medical professionals to increase the volume of services provided."

Quinn added that the bill did not go far enough to "protect patient choice, restrict fee-splitting practices and limit self-referrals within the health care industry."

According to the article, the Illinois Physical Therapy Association has long opposed the hiring of physical therapists by doctors because that partnership, the association says, divides profits and becomes a form of fee-splitting, which is illegal.

Fee-splitting involves receiving a fee for referring a patient, which is banned in Illinois and other states to protect consumers and the health care system from conflicts of interest.

Peter J. McMenamin, former president of the Illinois Physical Therapy Association, believes the Governor's veto supports the association's point of view against fee-splitting.

"Our efforts would be to try to help uphold the Governor's veto," McMenamin said.

According to the article, doctors who have physical therapists working for them say that they are not shirking the law. Instead, they argue, they are legitimate employers, and that by hiring physical therapists they can better supervise therapy. Of the approximately 9,000 licensed physical therapists in Illinois, about 400 are employed by physicians, according to the Illinois State Medical Society.

Dr. Steven Malkin, president of the Illinois State Medical Society, who pushed for the bill, said in May that employment arrangements with physical therapists don't amount to fee-splitting, because doctors don't get a direct payoff for the referral. He said patients' insurance providers typically are billed for the services rendered at the practice, and, in turn, the insurance providers send a check back to the practice, not to the doctors.

The article is available at http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/07/gov-quinn-vetoes-physical-therapist-bill.html