Modifications for Home Accessibility: They Are Coming Home!...Now What?

Wednesday, July 26 (12:00 p.m. MT)

A free CEU eligible* webinar presented by Accessible Systems, a Lifeway Mobility company

Modifications for Home Accessibility is the next webinar in our Hospital to Home series. This CEU eligible webinar will focus on solutions to make a home accessible to help your clients/patients stay in their home for as long as possible.

Click to Register & See Other Upcoming Hospital to Home CEU Webinars

*All Webinars are the last Wednesday of the month at 12:00 p.m. MT* 

 

APTA Specialist Certification Deadline Approaching

The APTA Specialist Certification Program is currently accepting applications for the 2024 board certification specialty examinations, with an “early bird” submission deadline of July 31, 2023, and a final submission deadline of September 30, 2023.

For more information or questions, visit APTA Specialist Certification at https://specialization.apta.org/ or call 800-999-2782, ext. 8520.

 

APTA, ASHA, AOTA to Congress: Let's Take on the Fee Schedule — Here's How

Along with APTA Private Practice, the associations have a plan for reform that could dramatically alter the Medicare payment landscape.

News

Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2023

With momentum building on Capitol Hill to address longstanding problems with the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, APTA, APTA Private Practice, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and the American Occupational Therapy Association are urging lawmakers to adopt an “all of the above” game plan laid out in a set of joint principles for reform. It's a multipronged approach that includes not only the adoption of legislation to tie fee schedule payment to inflation, but even more far-reaching changes that would significantly improve the Medicare payment environment for rehabilitation therapy providers.

The "Policy Principles of Outpatient Therapy Reform Under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule" is a conceptual roadmap offering five changes specific to outpatient therapy that the organizations say need to be made for the continued sustainability of Medicare in rehabilitation therapy. The recommendations include everything from abolishing the Multiple Procedure Payment Recovery policy, or MPPR, to reforms that would allow physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists to more fully participate in alternative payment systems, along with changes that would significantly reduce red tape for providers.

"Over the last three years, rehabilitation therapy providers have received some of the largest cuts of any health care providers as a result of the fee schedule's budget neutrality policies," the organizations write in a joint statement to Congress that accompanies the principles document. "These joint policy principles … identify some of the high-impact reforms that are needed to address administrative burden, value-based payment, and patient choice challenges that limit patient access to providers of occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language-pathology services."

In an APTA news release, APTA President Roger Herr, PT, MPA, said "Reforms to the Medicare fee schedule must address the unique challenges faced by therapy providers. These joint policy principles impacting outpatient therapy services provide a starting point, and APTA is eager to work with our congressional champions and provider allies in seeking meaningful fee schedule reforms."

The principles come just as the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services puts final touches on its proposed 2024 physician fee schedule rule, expected to be published sometime in July. APTA will offer ways for members to make their voices heard during the subsequent public comment period.

Click to read what the principles include.

https://www.apta.org/news/2023/06/28/pfs-policy-principles?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Informz%20email%20link&_zs=H8RfV1&_zl=bTc59

 

New Member Benefit Provides Medicaid Payment Information

APTA's State Medicaid Payment Rate Guide is an expansive resource that can help members understand and participate in the program.

News

Date: Friday, June 16, 2023

Medicaid is a huge program, serving an estimated 77.3 million Americans. And as just about any PT familiar with the program can tell you, the system can be a challenging one to navigate for providers.

That challenge just got a little easier for APTA members.

Now available: the APTA State Medicaid Payment Rate Guide, available for free as a member benefit, that helps PTs navigate the Medicaid landscape.

Offered in the form of an Excel spreadsheet, this rich resource serves up in-depth information on Medicaid fee-for-service payment rates for PT services provided by state Medicaid programs. The resource is not only a useful tool for individual members, but because it offers comparisons among states, it also can be an aid to state APTA chapters advocating for payment increases.

The guide offers payment rates for selected CPT codes as well as links to the Medicaid manuals for all 51 U.S. jurisdictions, and includes a terminology look-up, data dictionary, and frequently asked questions, among other features. The resource is also scalable, allowing users to zero in on specific states, codes, or other information. There's even a brief instructional video to help you familiarize yourself with the guide's features.

APTA President Roger Herr, PT, MPA, sees the guide as an important step in making Medicaid more approachable for PTs, and in turn increasing patient access to needed care.

"By helping our members better understand Medicaid, we're empowering them to participate fully in this crucial program that provides care to families, children, pregnant individuals, the elderly, and people with disabilities," Herr said. "PT services are needed in Medicaid, and APTA wants to do whatever we can to support access."

 

U.S. Supreme Court Clarifies Employer’s Religious Accommodation Obligations

  • The U.S. Supreme Court has announced its decision in Groff v. DeJoy, a long-awaited decision explaining employers’ obligations under Title VII to reasonably accommodate employees’ religious beliefs, observances, and practices.
  • In the case, a former United States Postal Service (USPS) mail carrier, Gerald Groff claimed that he was unlawfully denied his requested religious accommodation to not work Sundays. The USPS tried to find other carriers to cover Groff’s Sunday shifts, but because of a shortage of rural carriers, it often failed. Groff requested that the USPS exempt him from Sunday work, but the USPS declined, stating that his requested accommodation would lead to undue hardship for the USPS.
  • Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, employers are required to reasonably accommodate employees whose sincerely held religious beliefs or observances conflict with work requirements, unless doing so would create an undue hardship for the employer. With no statutory definition of “undue hardship”, courts have relied on the Supreme Court’s decision in TWA v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63 (1977), to determine the parameters of the term. In Hardison, the Court stated that requiring an employer “to bear more than a de minimis cost in order to give [an employee] Saturdays off is an undue hardship.” In Groff, the Court changed the test. According to the Court, it now “understands Hardison to mean that ‘undue hardship’ is shown when a burden is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business.” The Court declined to incorporate the undue hardship test under the Americans with Disabilities Act which requires significant difficulty and expense.

If employers have any questions or concerns, we recommend they contact us to ensure compliance. For assistance, contact us at 423-764-4127 or by email at [email protected]

 
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