Tag Archives: Part B Therapy

February 17, 2012

Congress Passes Legislation to Prevent Payment Cuts

News

Congress passed legislation to prevent the Medicare payment cuts. The next step will be for the bill to go to the President for signature. This, I’m sure he will do with pleasure as it is attached to the bill renewing the payroll tax cuts and the jobless benefits. The whole bill is expected to cost $143 billion. See our previous post for more details of the Medicare changes.

January 20, 2012

Our Seminars For 2012

News

We have changed how we will be presenting our live seminars for 2012 by scheduling both our SNF and Outpatient Part B seminars over the same weekend. This will help in keeping our registration price down for these presentations. We will be presenting Mastering Medicare: A Practical Guide To Succeeding Under RUG IV on a Friday; the Anatomy of Documentation, which was the second day of last year’s Mastering Medicare, will be scheduled on the Saturday with Tests, Measures & Questionnaires following on Sunday. This change in format will allow …
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January 6, 2012

Legislation Passed to Prevent Caps and Cuts Until February 29, 2012

News

It was the night before Christmas and all through the House (and Senate) members of Congress wanted to get home and so they did what Congress has been doing for the last 5 years (other than in 2010) and passed a stop-gap measure to prevent the reduction in the PFS of almost 28% and to extend the exception process until February 20th 2012. (Actually, it was not really the night before Christmas but almost.) Talk about déjà vue all over again. Both houses had already passed legislation to address the …
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October 8, 2011

Can I treat patient’s with supervised modalities and have all time billable?

Medicare Mentor

Question: A modality vendor stopped in to our clinic recently and said that for Part B a therapist can apply an unattended modality (unattended EMS or diathermy) to more than one patient at the same time and all time is billable. Is this correct? Also could you run through different part B scenarios such as: 1. Therapist supervision 2 part B unattended modalities at the same time and not seeing any other patient. 2. Therapist supervising 2 part B modalities and doing manual therapy with third part B patient. Answer: …
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September 26, 2011

Can a tech treat patients under the supervision of a physician and bill Medicare?

Medicare Mentor

Question: If the outpatient clinic is being supervised by a physician is it OK for PT tech’s or aides to treat patients? If so does the therapist also need to be supervising? Answer: Absolutely NO! 1) Medicare does not pay for services provided by an aide or tech, only those of a qualified professional. 2) If a physician is billing incident-to, then those services must be provided by a physical therapist, not even a physical therapist assistant will be accepted. 3) To bill Medicare for services provided by a tech/aide …
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August 24, 2011

I Have Some Part B Questions

Medicare Mentor

Question: I have some questions for you about Part B Outpatient services: In the outpatient setting does there have to be physicians on-site and a daily “Dr. on call” that is indicated on the billing charge in order to be covered by Medicare? One of our sites does not see Medicare patients because of this reason but I don’t know that it’s a valid point. You didn’t mention it in your class. Next, is the “GP” modifier necessary for billing under each procedure? (I am not referring to the 59 …
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August 4, 2011

Our Latest Company Association, MedVault Inc, An EMR Company

Company Corner

We are extremely happy to announce our latest association with MedVault Inc, an EMR company. I have been working with Ken Fleischer for some time and I am pleased to be able to recommend their EMR system. MedVault is a highly respected company and has developed an easy to use EMR system. We have worked with them in the past and hope their new technologies will benefit your practice. Ken can customize documentation to your established system or we can work on creating you something new. MedVault EMR software is …
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July 4, 2011

CMS Publishes The Proposed Rule For Part B Services 2012

What's New Part B

CMS published the Interim Final Rule for Part B services for fiscal year 2012 on July 1st and guess what, we’re back to the same old story as in previous years, except it just keeps getting worse each year. The flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) which has been a problem for many years, which is acknowledges as flawed and which has had no action to correct, is still in place. For those of you who are not aware , the SGR has been on a negative index for several years. This …
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July 1, 2011

Can A PTA Do Modalities?

Medicare Mentor

Question: I had a question regarding Medicare and supervision. I know there are a lot of questions about this subject but everything you read is different. I employ a PT and PTA. We do several types of modalities, ultrasound, muscle stimulation, heat, ice, etc. If both the PT and PTA are in the office treating patients does the PT have to literally turn on every modality, push every button of every machine that the PTA does? Can the PTA (after being instructed by pt) do ultrasound on their own? My …
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May 27, 2011

Why Are Some Companies Not Allowing 2 Disciplines On The Same Day Under Part B?

Medicare Mentor

Question: It has been brought to my attention from an employee of mine that some companies are changing the way they treat Part B. The company has put forth an implementation that a patient cannot have 2 disciplines treat a patient on the same day. They are stating that this is a Medicare ruling- and I cannot find clarification to support this. So, they are having PT treat 3x per week and on opposite days OT sees 2X/week. Answer:What the company is doing is maximizing their reimbursement by not providing …
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