Important Update for Home Care Therapists

by | Apr 28, 2011 | All Blogs | 7 comments

Entry By: Eileen Bach, PT, M.Ed, DPT

CMS has an update on the 2011 Therapy rules – I encourage EVERY therapist working in home health care to read this document!

Go to http://www.cms.gov/center/hha.asp and look for the document titled “Chapter 7 Home Health Manual Update with Therapy Revisions” that is dated 4/18/2011. This is a rich document that discusses in detail the new, required therapy issues and identifies changed language regarding skilled therapy and maintenance therapy.

Clarified in this transmittal are several BIG issues.

First – if there is only 1 therapy service actively visiting the patient, the 13th and 19th re-assessment MUST be done on the 13th or 19th visit. Only when there are multiple therapies actively visiting is there some flexibility as long as ALL active therapists (PT, OT, ST) complete their discipline re-assessment BY the 13th visit. The rural home care agency has some exception in timing as well.

Second- the 30 day re-assessment is calendar based and the 1st day is the therapists’ assessment; each active therapist would do a 30 day re-assessment. Much more significant, CMS has clarified that the 30 day re-assessment continues across episodes until the therapy is ended.

This information along with many more items and tips to add to your skilled therapy portfolio of knowledge is covered during my seminar Home Health Care: Advancing Your Skill Set. Come and join your colleagues and I in a lively day of home care specific information and resources.

Cheers from the field!

Eileen Bach

7 Comments

  1. Amanda on May 13, 2011 at 6:47 am

    Hi Eileen, I really enjoyed your Home Health care course yesterday in Cincinnati, OH! I am trying to find on Google Scholar the falls study you mentioned. The one where the SNF did a study on 1 wing of their facility with having their patients do the 1 leg balance daily. What do I need to enter in order to find this?

    Thanks,
    Amanda

    • Eileen Bach on May 13, 2011 at 10:12 am

      Hi Amanda,

      I am on the “road” with Home Care seminars until next Wednesday. When I am back in my office, I will pull out the exact reference from my Falls research info and post it here.

      Thank you for your positive feedback on my seminar!

      Best wishes,
      Eileen

    • Eileen Bach on May 19, 2011 at 4:06 pm

      Amanda, I checked through my falls research biblio and I believe the article I referred to is:
      Sakamoto, K., Nakamura, T., et al. 2006. Effects of Unipedal Standing Balance Exercise on the Prevention of falls and Hip Fractures among Clinically Defined High-risk Individuals: a Randomized Controlled Trial: Journal of Orthopedic Science; 11: 5: 467-72

      Hope this is helpful!
      Best wishes,
      Eileen

  2. Eileen Bach on May 9, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    Thanks for the positive feedback, Julie – I am glad you found my home care seminar helpful!

    I do not have any specific reference on reimbursement for PT wound care. Medicare home health intermediaries expect that IF the PT does wound care it is done in conjunction with other PT treatment, meaning if the only treatment needed was wound care (no skilled PT needs) then Medicare home care would expect an RN to perform the wound care.

    You may want to check the APTA and the Calif. insurance commission to see if they have any recommendations for this topic.
    Best wishes,
    Eileen

  3. Julie Jeung on May 9, 2011 at 11:00 am

    HI Eileen,

    I attended Advancing Your Skill Set in California. I really appreciate the information you provided. I cannot find any information about PT reimbursement for wound care in California. We have a PT Wound Care Specialist who has been doing wound care, but are now concerned that this may not be reimburseable.

    Any advise or resources you could point me to?

    Much Thanks,
    Julie

  4. Eileen Bach on May 5, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    Hi, Tracey, thank you for your interest in my program. You can see all the scheduled seminars for my program “Home Health care: Advancing Your Skill Set” on the Summit web page:
    http://summit-education.com/
    then select Live Workshops, then on the left side of page, browse by workshop (you can select Geriatrics, OT or PT)and look for my title above. Click on the title and the list of upcoming scheduled seminars – the dates and exact locations are listed.
    I am in Ohio and PA starting 5/12 for 5 locations, in case that is locale and time frame that works; next seminars are July in AZ and Utah. The fall schedule should be posted in the next few weeks.

    Best wishes,
    Eileen

  5. traceykirstein on May 5, 2011 at 9:29 am

    I would like to attend your seminar on Home Health Care: advancing your skill set. Can you kindly send me the seminar information. Many thanks