Alliance for Physical Therapy Quality & Innovation (APTQI)

Advocating for Increased Physical Therapy (PT) Coverage to Benefit Patients and Payers

The Ask

The Alliance for Physical Therapy Quality and Innovation consists of physical therapists and physical therapy practices who share a common vision for the future of their profession, to establish physical therapy as a clinically appropriate treatment of choice with the best value for patients and payers. This includes greater access to physical therapy for more patients, leading them to explore a campaign conveying the value for building more PT coverage into insurance plans. Our client asked for a carefully crafted message to prepare the APTQI member organizations in their advocacy campaign targeted to health plan designers and decision makers.

Campaign Concepts

A split image of a man in athletic clothing, with one side showing a black t-shirt and shorts against an orange background, and the other side in a light blue medical gown against a blue background. The left side features an arm in a cast, with a wristwatch, holding a bandage with a zip-up closure. To the right, the man wears a sling with a tablet in his pocket. The text on the left side highlights physical therapy as an effective, evidence-based treatment for musculoskeletal issues, promoting a win-win approach. The logo of the Alliance for Physical Therapy (APTA) is at the bottom left.

Campaign Concept

Background & Challenges

APTQI came to us with an identified prevailing lack of awareness that current plan designs inadvertently encouraged a more costly pathway for musculoskeletal (MSK) care. With a network spanning over 5,000 physical therapist offices, APTQI needed to equip them with a compelling common message to educate health plan decisionmakers on the importance of PT access in achieving enhanced outcomes for patients and significant financial savings for payers. It’s a win-win.

A poster titled 'Case Study: Evidence of Reduced MSK Spend Through Benefit Design Change' from the Alliance for Physical Therapy Quality and Innovation. It includes sections on introduction, background, methods, and testimonials. The poster features a bar chart showing member engagement with physical therapy from 2018 to 2022, with color-coded data on diagnoses and engagement during care, and includes textual analysis.

Case Study

An infographic about physical therapy, featuring a man in a blue medical gown and a woman in a wheelchair with a therapist, along with text and statistics about the benefits and cost savings of physical therapy.

Brochure

How We Contributed

Strategy

Messaging

Concepting & Design

Deliverables

Brochure

Infographic

Case Study

Compendium

PowerPoint

Our Solution

Starting with an in-depth analysis of our four primary audiences to determine pain points and need, we led a workshop with our client team to prioritize segments and maximize our messaging efforts. Using our discovery findings, we mapped each benefit to distill essential insights and develop the messaging framework which served as our cornerstone for creative concepting. Through a series of themes, we partnered with our client to develop a powerful and compelling campaign to enhance the efforts of APTQI member organizations creating awareness of how increased PT coverage benefits all.

Results

The campaign was enthusiastically received, and the resulting toolkit of deliverables were quickly adopted by APTQI members. The client was extremely happy with our strategic and creative support and the work is being used today to affect the current process of insurance plan design.