Healthcare Reform

NARA Spring Conference 2016 May 4 - 6, 2016 Renaissance Washington DC Hotel - Dupont Circle Major changes are in store for the health care sector which will have a profound effect on providers and their patients. The elections in November will bring a new President, determine which party will control the House and Senate, and usher in new leadership for regulatory agencies such as HHS and CMS. Federal agencies will take significant steps to implement new payment methodologies to replace the physician... Read More

On April 14th, by a vote of 92-8, the Senate passed H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which had passed the House over two weeks ago by a wide margin. Eight Republicans voted against the bill: Senators Cruz, Lee, Perdue, Rubio, Sasse, Scott, Sessions, and Shelby. Six amendments were offered to the bill and all were defeated, including Sen. Cardin’s amendment to repeal the outpatient therapy caps. The bill will now be sent to the President who has already stated that he will... Read More

Click here for the recently posted HIPAA Modifications.

CMS Announces Educational Call for Providers on Functional Testing Requirement  

December 12, 2012 1:30 - 3:00pm EST

CMS Special Open Door Forum Summary Manual Medical Review Process for Part B Therapy Claims Effective October 1, 2012  

Effective October 1, 2012, CMS will implement a phased Therapy Cap Exception (TCE) process. The implementation schedule is provided below. During this period, the 2012 therapy cap amounts will be $1880 for occupational therapy services and $1880 for the combined services for physical therapy and speech-language pathology. All requests for therapy services above $3,700 which are provided by a speech language therapist, physical therapist, or physician shall be approved or disapproved in advance. Settings... Read More

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Special Open Door Forum: Manual Medical Review of Therapy Claims   Wednesday, September 5, 2012 2:00pm – 3:30pm Eastern Time Conference Call Only 

8.22.2012

Special Open Door Forum: Manual Medical Review of Therapy Claims Tuesday August 7; 2-3:30pm ET Conference Call Only The purpose of this Special Open Door Forum (ODF) is to provide an opportunity for providers to ask questions about the mandated manual medical review of therapy services from October 1-December 31, 2012 that was enacted by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.  During this Special Open Door Forum, CMS will discuss the implementation of a process... Read More

April 27, 2012 - Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released transmittal 2457 dated April 27, 2012 with an effective and implementation date of October 1, 2012.  This transmittal addresses the creation of the manual medical review process for therapy services reaching the $3,700 thresold effective October 1, 2012; however, it does not provide any details for how the process will be handled. This transmittal also addresses the temporarily application of the therapy caps (and related... Read More