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04/17/20

CMS Releases FY 2021 IRF Proposed Rule

On April 16, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Fiscal year (FY) 2021 proposed rule for facilities under the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Prospective Payment System (IRF PPS). Highlights of the proposed rule include the following: In the FY 2021 IRF PPS proposed rule, CMS is proposing to allow non-physician practitioners to perform any of the IRF coverage service and documentation duties that are currently required to be performed by a rehabilitation physician, provided that the duties are within the non-physician practitioner’s scope of practice under applicable state law CMS is proposing to no longer require

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04/16/20

CMS Releases SNF FY 2021 Proposed Rule

On April 10, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the FY 2021 Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) proposed rule. To access the Fact Sheet on this proposed rule, click HERE. To access the proposed rule on the Federal Register, click HERE.

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07/29/19

CMS Releases Proposed Rule for Calendar Year 2020

On July 29, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the proposed rule for calendar year (CY) 2020 for services paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). This proposed rule does impact providers of outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy services in all outpatient therapy settings that does include private practices, hospital outpatient departments (including Medicare beneficiaries under Observation status and in the Emergency Department and do not get admitted to the hospital), skilled nursing facilities, rehabilitation agencies, comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facilities and home health agencies providing outpatient therapy in a Medicare beneficiaries home. Highlights of

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07/17/19

CMS Issues CY 2020 Home Health Proposed Rule

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued the Home Health proposed rule for calendar year (CY) 2020. In the proposed rule, there are several proposals that could have an impact on physical, occupational and speech therapy services with one of the proposals having a potential positive impact on outpatient therapy services and another proposal recommending changes to who can provide maintenance therapy to Medicare beneficiaries who are under an active Home Health Agency (HHA) plan of care. Proposals that impact therapy services include, but are not limited to the following:

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04/22/19

CMS Releases FY2020 SNF Proposed Rule

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) fiscal year (FY) 2020 proposed rule. CMS has published a fact sheet that highlights 3 major provisions of the proposed rule that are: The proposed changes to SNF payment policy under the SNF Prospective Payment System (PPS) The SNF Value-Based Purchasing Program (VBP) The SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) In FY 2020, CMS expects payments to SNF’s to increase by 2.5% compared to FY 2019. CMS is proposing to change the definition of group therapy in the SNF Part A setting to align with the

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04/18/19

CMS Releases IRF FY 2020 Proposed Rule

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the fiscal year (FY) 2020 Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) proposed rule. Highlights of the proposed rule include: CMS projects that IRF payments will increase by 2.3 percent for FY 2020 Revising the case-mix groups based on two years of data (FY 2017 and FY 2018) from the quality indicator data items and update the relative weights and average length of stay values associated with the revised case-mix groups beginning on October 1, 2019. Proposing 2 new interoperability measures for the IRF rule to implement the final requirements of the IMPACT

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