Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Some in Congress want to keep IRF compliance threshold at 50 percent.

Rehab providers that wished that the 75 percent rule would stop in its tracks might see that dream realized - if a group of Congressmen and hospital organizations get their way.
 
If passed, the "Preserving Patient Access to Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals Act of 2005" would sustain the current 50 percent compliance threshold for inpatient rehabilitation facilities for an additional two years, says Federation of American Hospitals president Chip Kahn in a July 14 press release.
 
Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Rick Santorum (R-PA), and representatives Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Nita Lowey (D-NY) and John Tanner (D-TN) introduced the bill. The legislation calls for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to hold off on enforcing the rule to allow time for more research, as the GAO's June report suggested, and for IRFs to adjust to the rule, Kahn says.
 
"Changes made to how CMS identifies an inpatient rehabilitation facility have made it more difficult for many patients to receive the comprehensive medical care provided by rehabilitation hospitals," said American Hospital Association executive vice president Ron Pollack in a July 14 statement.