Eli's Rehab Report

Therapists getting paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule got some last-minute luck. The 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act (HR 3326) became law right before the holidays, and it includes an extension of the 2009 conversion factor, which is 36.0666.

True, this law does not increase your Medicare pay, but remember the conversion factor was originally facing a 21.9 percent cut.

This conversion factor freeze is only good through February, 2010. The idea was to offer practitioners a brief extension until Congress could pass health care reform that would include a conversion factor fix, according to PT Bulletin Online.

Important: HR 3326 does not contain a provision that extends the therapy cap exceptions process into 2010, the Bulletin said. That will have to wait until health care reform passes -- and provisions to extend the therapy cap exceptions are in both the House and the Senate's versions of health care reform proposals. As of press time, the House and the Senate must now agree on a common healthcare reform bill before it can become law.