Don’t adjust your therapy reassessment dates for episodes ending Jan. 1 or later, CMS warned providers in a Dec. 2 Federal Register notice. The timeline for reassessments, as spelled out in the 2015 PPS final rule, will change for episodes beginning on Jan. 1.
Wrong way: In the PPS final rule, CMS “inadvertently stated that the changes were effective for episodes ‘ending’ on or after January 1, 2015,” the agency spells out.
Right way: “We meant to state that the therapy reassessment changes finalized in the regulations … are effective for episodes ‘beginning’ on or after January 1, 2015,” CMS confirms.
The reassessment timeline will switch from the current visit-counting methodology to every 30 days (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXIII, No. 39).