Ensuring Access to Medicare Outpatient Therapy Services
Ray
Rayilyn Brown
Past Director AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation
From: Parkinson's Action Network
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 12:06 PM
To: Rayilyn Brown
Subject: Ensuring Access to Medicare Outpatient Therapy Services
Health Reform: A Look at Medicare Therapy Caps
Yesterday, March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law health care reform legislation. One provision of the legislation was a one-year extension to the exceptions process for Medicare outpatient therapy services. For the last several months, PAN has been working with the Therapy Cap Coalition, a group of over forty groups representing patients and providers, to reinstate the Medicare therapy caps exceptions process.
Congress allowed the exceptions process to expire on December 31, 2009 and a therapy cap limit of $1,860 for occupational therapy and a separate cap of $1,860 for physical therapy and speech language pathology services went into effect on January 1, 2010. People with Parkinson's disease commonly have a medical need for physical, occupational, and speech language therapy. The Medicare therapy cap of $1,860 is arbitrary and places an unnecessary burden on the Parkinson's community. An extension of the exceptions process means that many people living with Parkinson's will now be able to continue their medically necessary therapy services for no additional cost.
The health reform legislation only reinstates the exceptions process through December 31, 2010, so PAN will continue to work with Congress to permanently repeal the Medicare therapy caps.
To learn more about the Medicare therapy caps, click here.
If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from us, please click here.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn
