Home Health & Hospice Week

Act now on this growing trend -- before your competition does.

If you aren't providing outpatient therapy in patients' homes, you're missing out on a lucrative, wide-open market that pays off in both patient improvement and a booming bottom line.

Once patients are no longer homebound, many therapists and their patients assume patients must go to a clinical setting where the patient arrives at a certain time and the therapist stays put. However, getting to and from a therapy appointment often leaves patients frustrated and fatigued, points out PT Lynn Steffes with Steffes & Associates in New Berlin, Wis.

Better: Patients who have been used to receiving therapy in their home can continue to do so under the Part B therapy benefit. HHAs can offer Part B therapy as a separate business line.

That service can help patients who barely make it to their appointments and keep therapists from nagging those who begin skipping appointments, Steffes encourages.

HHAs can bill for the Part B therapy using HCPCS codes on Part A claims, notes regional home health intermediary Palmetto GBA on its website.

The positive benefits of in-home therapy are enormous, experts say. Therapists are able to work one-on-one with patients in an environment that makes them feel safe and secure -- and patients are well-rested and relaxed when they begin therapy because the therapist came to them.

Working with patients in the environments they navigate every day keeps them independent longer and helps therapists spot any problems that may interfere with the patients' therapy -- such as under-reported medication use or cluttered living spaces that discourage physical activity, says PT Peter Kovacek, co-owner of In Home Rehab and PTManager.com.

Because patients are more willing and able to participate in their therapy plans and comply with therapy orders, therapists will see a greater return on their time investment compared to outpatient therapy -- and patients will be more pleased with their care.

Note: For a free copy of Palmetto GBA's Home Health Outpatient Therapy job aide, e-mail editor Rebecca Johnson at rebeccaj@eliresearch.com with "OPT Job Aide" in the subject line.