Stop the 9% Outpatient Therapy Cut
The proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2021 is calling for an estimated 9% decrease in payment for codes tied to Part B physical, occupational and speech therapy services. I am asking you to contact your representative in the House of Representatives and your 2 United State Senators to prevent these cuts, which will reduce patient access and create instability in the health care system.
Contact your Members of Congress today. Please do this in addition to submitting comments to CMS that I discuss below. WE NEED BOTH!
In addition and equally important is communicating your opposition to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). APTA encourages all PTs, PTAs, physical therapy students, and patients to submit comments to CMS opposing the 9% cut. The more comments CMS receives opposing the payment reduction, the harder it is for CMS to justify finalizing this proposal, effective January 1, 2021.
Clinician and patient template letters to CMS are available via the APTA Regulatory Action Center and you can access them by clicking HERE. You do not need to be an APTA member or a PT or PTA to access the templates.
Click HERE to access APTA’s letter for PTs, PTAs and students and click HERE to access APTA’s letter for patients. You can then customize your letter and submit your letter to CMS by clicking HERE. This link is valid for comments submitted Friday thru Tuesday.
To submit your comments to CMS on Wednesday or Thursday, click HERE.
The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) has created a template letter that can be completed by occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants and submitted to CMS. To access the 4-page template letter, click HERE and scroll down to the bottom of the page and then click on “Template Letter”.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has created a template form that speech-language pathologists can complete and email to their members of Congress. Click HERE to access this template that will take 1-minute of your time to complete.
If you have any questions or require assistance, please email me at info@gawendaseminars.com
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This article is not intended to and does not serve as legal advice or as consultative services, but is for general information purposes only.