Originally posted by Arnie Cisneros, PT on Advance for Occupational Therapy, July 31, 2012
The Medicare Payment Advisory Committee, commonly known as MedPAC, released their 2012 Annual Report to Congress in April. MedPAC provides programming recommendations to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on a yearly basis regarding all types of care programs.
The yearly report addresses areas of refinement to all aspects of the Medicare program, and seeks to protect program integrity and efficiency for U.S. taxpayers who are, or one day will be, Medicare beneficiaries.
Though refinements and proposals are made for all types of CMS providers and care sites, some of this year’s most progressive recommendations address the role of therapy in home health, and when enacted, these reforms will significantly alter how rehab care is developed and delivered in the home.
This article will review the changes contained in the MedPAC report, and identify areas of current home health delivery that will change if and when the proposals are enacted. Many of the recommendations mirror cost and quality controls common across the care continuum, and most rehab professionals have some experience with these types of programming guidelines.
But nonetheless, therapists working in home care will find the changes require significant modifications to how they develop and deliver care programs to their homebound clients receiving service under the Medicare home health benefit.
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