Therapy:
'Close To' Elimination Will Wreak Havoc On Home Health Therapy
Published on Thu Sep 20, 2012
Drop the proposal for specific visit ranges, commenters urge CMS.Scheduling for therapy reassessments in multi-discipline cases will get even hairier Jan. 1, unless Medicare officials listen to comments on the 2013 home health prospective payment system proposed rule.Old way: Currently, when beneficiaries receive more than one type of therapy in a home health episode, the therapist's reassessment visit "need only be 'close to' the 13th and 19th visits," the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reiterates in the home proposed rule published in the July 13 Federal Register.New way: CMS proposes "to revise the regulations ... to clarify that in cases where the patient is receiving more than one type of therapy, qualified therapists could complete their reassessment visits during the 11th, 12th, or 13th visit for the required 13th visit reassessment and the 17th, 18th, or 19th visit for the required 19th visit reassessment," the agency says in the [...]