Act Now CMS Needs Input from Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists on Proposed 2025 Medicare Rule

1.     WHY APOLLO BLOG SIGN IN  888 447 8065 HOME COMPANY  FEATURES  PRICING CONTACT US GET A FREE DEMO ACT NOW: CMS NEEDS TO HEAR FROM PHYSICAL, OCCUPATIONAL, AND SPEECH THERAPISTS ON THE PROPOSED 2025 MEDICARE RULE! Home  Blog  ACT NOW: CMS Needs to Hear from Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists on the Proposed 2025 Medicare Rule! Recent Posts By Apollo Team Blog August 27, 2024 Reading Time: 4 minutes Tags: physical therapy documentation software, Physical Therapy Software ACT NOW: CMS Needs to Hear from Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists on the Proposed 2025 Medicare Rule! Accurately Entering a Takeback, Overpayment, or Underpayment in Apollo Practice Management Software It’s that time of year when CMS proposes changes for 2025 to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) to adjust payment rates and policies and propose modifications to the Quality Payment Program. As a physical therapist or healthcare provider, your voice shapes these policies. Despite years of opposition from bipartisan lawmakers and a broad group of healthcare stakeholders, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is again trying to impose cuts to physical and occupational therapy in the Proposed Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Rule for CY 2025. Auto-Stamping Improves and Clarifies Your Entries in Practice Management Software The proposed rule includes a 2.8% conversion factor cut to providers in CY 2025. This cut comes on top of a nearly 10% reduction in the conversion factor over the last five years (which clearly can be seen on your physical therapy software). This proposed rule could significantly impact your practice. This reduction underscores the need for efficient practice management tools to keep track of your practice more closely, such as physical therapy documentation software, to help mitigate the financial strain on practices. Here are some points you can make, but please modify them to fit your practice. CMS does NOT want canned responses. Personal Introduction: Give a brief description of who you are, your years of experience, your specialty, and how this proposed rule would affect your practice. Express Your Concerns: Thank CMS for the opportunity to provide comments on the Proposed Rule for the CY 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Express that you are deeply concerned by the proposed 2.8% cut to the conversion factor for 2025. As a provider, you have experienced a nearly 10% reduction in the conversion factor over the last 5 years while the expenses to run and staff your private practice have soared. Additionally, services provided by physical and occupational therapy assistants were cut by 15%. These continued reductions are unsustainable. The fee schedule needs to be overhauled. Encourage CMS to support Congressional efforts to provide supplemental funding to boost the conversion factor. Telehealth Advocacy: Telehealth will not extend past December 31, 2024, for PT/OT/SLP providers without Congressional action. Urge CMS to expand the definition of telehealth practitioners to include qualified physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and audiologists and make the services these practitioners perform permanent for consideration to the Category 1 or Category 2 criteria. Provisional codes such as those that therapists commonly use, 97110, 97112, 97116, 97161, 97162, 97163, 97164, 97530, and 97535, should all be made permanent, not just those for caregiver training (97550, 97551, and 97552). Telehealth has proven to be an integral part of the healthcare delivery system. It promotes access to timely care for those seniors who cannot drive to their appointments or afford the gas. Supervision Requirement Support: Thank CMS for proposing to change the supervision requirement for therapist assistants in private practice from direct to general supervision. For years, the private practice setting has been saddled with the burden of requiring direct supervision for therapist assistants, while other settings, such as rehabilitation agencies, have not. The needless requirement has resulted in restricted access to care, especially in underserved and rural areas. Plan of Care Signature Requirement: Tell CMS that you support their proposed exception to the initial plan of care signature requirement, allowing the physician’s signed order or referral to demonstrate initial certification of the therapist’s care plan. As a private practice therapist, I spend countless hours trying to get a signed plan of care acknowledgment back from physicians/NPP offices. While this exception does not apply to re- certification when further care is needed, it is a welcome start to save time on needless paperwork. Caregiver Training Services: Thank CMS for recognizing the importance of adding three codes for caregiver training services related to direct care services, such as instruction in wound care, dressing changes, infection control, and medication administration (GCTD1, GCTD2, and GCTD3). Support the addition of these CTS codes and the ability to perform these through telehealth as caregivers are increasingly the ones that must provide this important patient care in the home, often with limited previous instruction. MIPS Talking Points: Comment on CMS’s keeping the data completeness threshold at 75% in the proposed 2025 rule. Ask CMS to allow an exception to this requirement as there are unforeseen circumstances when it is not possible to complete it (e.g. if a patient self-discharges or has an unexpected interruption to their episode of care). Ask for more visibility on how the Cost performance category of MIPS is evaluated. Although the 2025 proposed rule has remained the same, the ambiguity of this performance category does not allow for a solid understanding of how the measure is calculated. Therefore, there is little understanding of how to make a viable change to improve in this category. In 2024, CMS implemented the MSK MVP, which included new rehabilitative support for musculoskeletal care. Comment on CMS’s addition of this MVP; however, express concern about the limited nature of what can be reported in the MSK MVP. The performance measures added to the MSK MVP (MSK6, MSK7, MSK8, MSK9) are pain measures, not functional ones. They provide a poor measure of value for outpatient physical and occupational therapy providers. Ask CMS to consider adding functional measures to the MSK MVP so that there is a better indicator of value-based care. How Can You Comment on the CY 2025 Proposed Rule? The proposed rule includes directions for submitting comments. CMS must receive comments within the 60-day comment period. When commenting, refer to file code CMS-1807-P. CMS won’t accept FAX transmissions. Use one of the 3 following ways to submit your comments officially: Electronically: Regulations.gov – Follow the “Submit a comment” instructions. Due no later than 11:59 pm ET on September 9, 2024. Regular mail: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-1807-P, P.O. Box 8016, Baltimore, MD 21244-8016. Due no later than 5:00 pm ET on September 9, 2024. Please allow sufficient time for mailed comments to be received before the close of the comment period. Express or overnight mail: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-1807-P, Mail Stop C4-26-05, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850. Due no later than 5:00 pm ET on September 9, 2024. Thank you for taking the time to send CMS your comments! Together, we can make a difference. Go green, paperless is good for the environment! GET A FREE DEMO IMPORTANT LINKS FEATURES CONTACT DETAILS APOLLO PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Home Contact Us Physical Therapy Scheduling 290 First Street Suite Two, Pittsfield, Massachusetts 01201 Maximize your practice with robust reports and technical support About Us Customer Reviews Physical Therapy EMR 888 447 8065 Manage Your Business Grow Your Business Access Expert Support and Training Benefits Physical Therapy Billing Blog Key Features Physical Therapy Documentation …the possibilities are endless. All at an extremely affordable price Pricing Practice Management Reporting  Copyright © 2024 Apollo Practice Management Software. All rights reserved. Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy   