November 11, 2009

Rehab Boot Camp

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On November 8th and 9th Therapeutic Resources held a seminar entitled, Rehab Boot Camp. This was a two-day intensive workshop for therapists working in the long term care arena, covering issues relating to reimbursement and programming to ensure revenue capture under all Federal and NYS payment plans. Katy O'Conner, MSPT, Mojdeh Rutigliano, MSN,RN, RAC-CT and Ira Silfan, PT, presented valuable information to a packed house. The seminar was timely because the provision of therapy in long term care is changing!

In addition to reviewing management techniques designed to improve reimbursement capture under Medicare and Medicaid, ideas for Part B programming geared to the long term care patient (including cognitive, communication and mobility) were presented. This is an important issue right now under Medicaid Case Mix as the long term care resident may benefit from programs which have not been widely offered in recent years.

In 2010, RUGS IV and the revised MDS 3.0 will be unveiled. The course covered these changes in detail. In addition to increasing the number of categories, the new classification system changes many of the capture rules which will impact reimbursement. Limitations in concurrent therapy, more stringent qualification requirements to achieve the "extensive" categories, along with a shifting of rates from rehab toward nursing, will all have a major impact on our industry. It is important that we stay on top of these changes and amend our practices to maintain demand for our services.

Keep your eyes posted for our December 5 and 6 workshop on Feldenkrais, Yoga, Qigong and Tai Chi for long term care patients. This course demonstrates techniques to promote function and achieve reimbursement capture, creating new rehab reimbursement opportunities. For more information on this course, go to www.therapeuticresource.com.

-Lisa and Marilyn

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