The G-codes are here for payment claims — ready or not
By
Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L
May 23, 2013
Effective July 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will begin rejecting claims received for Medicare Part B patients that do not include the new requirement of G-coding. That really means providers...
Shamelessly invoice at your own risk
By
John O'Connor
Mar 22, 2013
Here’s the good news for providers: new analytics are making it possible to understand and bill your care in ways that would have been impossible just a few years ago. Here’s the bad news:...
When LTC leaders delegate accountability
By
John O'Connor
Nov 19, 2012
What happens when delegation without accountability takes place? We saw a good example last week, when the Office of Inspector General released a damning report about excessive Medicare charges from nursing...
Dehydration: Therapy should help fight it
By
Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L
Jul 15, 2014
The elderly are very vulnerable to dehydration and more than just the nursing staff have to be concerned about it. Not keeping an eye on appropriate hydration can cause a variety of serious problems.
Are you prepared? 5 questions you need to know the answers to
By
Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L
Aug 27, 2013
With all the recent regulatory changes that have come down the line, or are about to, we developed a simple five-question survey that each provider had to ask every therapy employee. If you can develop...
Happy holidays: ’tis the season for more rehab work
By
Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L
Dec 08, 2011
It’s that time of year again, the when our hospitals and nursing facilities start to fill up with patients suffering from new fractures, falls, pneumonia and other cardio-pulmonary diseases. However,...
Therapy with a twist (of lemon)
By
Tim Mullaney
Oct 01, 2013
As you read this, you might be eyeing the new RAI manual that takes effect today, and are feeling a bit overwhelmed at the sheer number of new pages. So it’s with great regret that I have to add...
Have we lost our connection to what’s important?
By
Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L
Aug 15, 2014
We sometimes use high-minded phrases to describe our work and our hopes for our patients. But have we lost our connection to important words? Do they still hold meaning they once did, and if so, how strongly?
What’s on Your PEPPER Report?
By
Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L
Sep 10, 2013
Have you received your provider-specific PEPPER report yet? The Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) were mailed on August 30 and have been slowly arriving at skilled nursing...
Have you met Jimmo’s stepbrother Jimmo?
By
Steven Littlehale
Apr 21, 2017
Therapy utilization will be as scrutinized as much as it ever has been, even though the “improvement standard” has once again been deemed deceased.