We are over a month into 2022 and have already billed the first month of the 15% reduction in therapy reimbursement for our Medicare patients. You’ll recall that Jan. 1, 2022, was the day that Medicare Part...
Breaking down the therapy changes
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Nov 08, 2021
Proposed rules almost always become final rules. On November 2, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (after threatening for four years) finalized the 15% payment reduction for outpatient...
Safety in colors
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Oct 15, 2021
The newly-remodeled lobby of the skilled nursing facility looked more like a luxury hotel. The colors were muted, earth-tone hues, low light illuminating the front desk. It was welcoming to the daughter...
Approaching the finish line
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Sep 13, 2021
I went to a wedding this month. Let me rephrase that: I went to a wedding that was a three-day, in-person, 125-attendees, sitting-at-tables-for-eight, extravaganza with family I haven’t seen in...
Vaccination nation
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Aug 11, 2021
Last week an insurance adjuster came over to scope out some storm damage. Anyone who enters my home must be vaccinated or wear a mask (I keep clean masks at the front door. I’m nice like that). If...
Vaccine hesitancy? Or vaccine denial?
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Jun 14, 2021
Spring has sprung and I am finally seeing my neighbors in their yards again. We’re washing cars, watering seedlings, rototilling and playing with our dogs. I have a neighbor who is a very smart and...
Expect the unexpected
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Apr 26, 2021
It’s a beautiful spring day in April in Northeast Ohio, and there are four inches of snow on the ground. It’s covering the daffodils and the apple blossoms. This is not unusual nor unexpected,...
Dear Texas: Please change your mind
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Mar 10, 2021
The news that Gov. Greg Abbott (R) of Texas has lifted ALL precautions against COVID-19, dropped the state’s mask mandate, and opened EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE has me concerned. Depression, anxiety, ulcers...
Side effects of medicine and hope
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Jan 22, 2021
I got the first step. The first step of the vaccine gave me a headache, a sore arm and the euphoric feeling of hope for release from the restrictions, illness and death that have literally plagued...
‘Notes from Underground,’ with apologies to Dostoevsky
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Dec 11, 2020
This is a throwback to college reading. It’s been a while for some of us, so bear with me for a minute. In 1864’s Notes from Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s narrator believes life in Utopia...