Therapy advocates are pushing back after an 8% therapy cut was part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ proposed 2020 Physician Fee Schedule Payment System Final Rule.
The rule looks to strengthen Evaluation and Management (E/M) Services coding and increase payments for office and outpatient E/M visits. The cuts would offset the payment increases, said Cynthia Morton, executive vice president of the National Association for the Support of LTC. “There’s no rationale to decrease therapy by an 8% cut for the patients in our nursing facilities. There’s just no reason for that,” Morton told McKnight’s.
She said the reduction would affect Part B services and, therefore, directly hurt skilled nursing facilities, which bill for that therapy. The end result could be less being done for residents.
The proposed funding reductions would become effective Jan. 1, 2021.
From the December 2019 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
