I receive many questions regarding treating Medicare beneficiaries for outpatient physical, occupational and/or speech therapy who reside in an assisted living facility (ALF). In this article, I will answer the following questions:

More and more physical therapists (PTs), occupational therapists (OTs) and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are establishing private practices that focus on seeing patients in their home for outpatient therapy services. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) does allow PTs, OTs, and SLPs to treat Medicare beneficiaries in their home as outpatients and pays for those services under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule just as CMS would pay if the Medicare beneficiary went to a private practice or other outpatient therapy setting (except for a critical access hospital who is reimbursed on a cost-ratio basis). However, what is considered a