Barring a change in direction by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, nursing home operators will have to slash the amount of therapy services they can offer, starting Jan. 1.
The Proposed Physician Fee Schedule Rule for 2021, disclosed by CMS in early August, includes an approximate 9% reduction in payments for physical and occupational therapy. CMS would use the revenue from these cuts to offset payment increases for primary care physicians. The cuts would become effective with the start of the calendar year and comes after therapy providers took an 8% cut last year.
In a recent op-ed in The Hill newspaper, Cynthia Morton, executive vice president of the National Association for the Support of Long Term Care (NASL), forecast a potentially dire future.
“The cuts sought by CMS are significant and deep and will have a damaging effect on nursing home residents’ access to rehabilitation, physician services and diagnostic testing,” Morton wrote. “For nursing home residents who need care, these cuts will result in less physical therapy to build up strength, potentially depriving them of the full benefit of relearning how to walk.”
The decreased payments also would reduce occupational therapy services that providers can offer, she said.
From the December 2020 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
