Physical therapy is recognized as an essential health care service, yet PTs and PTAs are often excluded from state and federal programs that would bolster the healthcare workforce in rural and medically underserved areas, incentivize individuals to pursue careers in PT, and defray the cost of education.

Why It Matters

Many areas throughout the United States are experiencing a dire shortage of health care providers, including access to PT care. Factors heavily contributing to this shortage are burdensome administrative requirements, student debt, and other variables, yet the patient demand for PT care is rising. To expand the physical therapy workforce to meet this need, more needs to be done to relieve the financial pressures faced by the profession.

Our Position

APTA supports legislation that would increase patient access to PT care, bring more PTs into rural and medically underserved areas, allow PTs to access federal programs that alleviate the financial pressures of student loan repayment, and incentivize students to pursue a career in physical therapy.

Updates

APTA strongly opposes the U.S. Department of Education’s new federal regulation that severely limits the borrowing amount of student loans for certain degrees, including physical therapy. The new regulation reclassifies dozens of professional degree programs, such as physical therapy education, as "graduate degree programs" for federal student loan borrowing limits. APTA supports three pieces of legislation introduced in Congress to ensure that students in physical therapy programs can afford their education. Visit the APTA Patient Action Center to write to your members of Congress today.

APTA is championing the Physical Therapist Workforce and Patient Access Act of 2025 (H.R. 5621 / S. 4420). This legislation proposes to increase the physical therapist workforce in rural and medically underserved areas by adding physical therapists as eligible providers in the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program, or NHSC, and expand access to PT services for children and adults in federal community health centers.