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ATRA
ACTION ALERT
10-4-06
RT Medicare
Project
Your immediate attention
is necessary to gain support of the next phase
in the ATRA Recreational Therapy Medicare Project.
1. Contact your
ATRA RT Medicare Project State Coordinator.
The State directory is located on the ATRA
website at RT Medicare Project, go to State
Directory (www.atra-tr.org/medicareproject)
to look up the contact information for your
state contact.
2. Review the materials
on the ATRA Website RT Medicare Project for
Senate Action Alert. A Senate sign on letter
has been distributed by Senator Specter (PA)
and Senator Bingaman (NM) to all 98 Senate
offices asking each Senator to sign on in support
of the Senate’s request for clarification
of CMS regulations regarding recreational therapy
services and the Certified Therapeutic Recreation
Specialist (CTRS) designation.
3. After review
of the Senate Action Alert materials on the
ATRA website, prepare a personalized letter
to your Senator requesting his/her support
in co-signing the Senate letter to CMS. Visit
www.senate.gov to look up the appropriate spelling
and fax number or email address for your two
Senator’s offices in Washington, D.C.
(personalize the XXX in the letter).
4. Fax* or email
your letter addressed to the Senator at the
general Senate office fax number or email address.
(*We recommend faxing
your letter as most effective means of communication.)
5. After faxing
or emailing the letter to the Senator, please
email a copy of your letter to ATRA at atra@atra-tr.org
so we are aware of your contact and if you
need additional support.
We thank you for
your support of this important phase of the
ATRA RT Medicare Project. Please contact us
if you have any questions at atra@atra-tr.org
or (703) 683-9420. Thank you!
Three
Hour Rule Update
posted 5-20-03
GT Thompson, CTRS, Ann Huston, Executive Director
for ATRA, and ATRA's legal counsel, Peter Thomas
met in March, 2003, immediately prior to the ATRA
Midyear in Washington, D.C. with the Medical Director
of CMS--Centers for Medicare and Medicaide Services.
At this time, no new statements have been issued.
Recreational Therapy continues to be a treatment
option for meeting criteria for the 3-hr. rule
for in-patients in physical rehabilitation settings.
We had hoped to obtain stronger clarification
to be shared with fiscal intermediaries, but that
will not be happening at this time. Please watch
for legislative alerts as we may be asking members
to request letters of support for TR treatment
services from their referring physicians, satisfied
consumers, and /or fellow therapists in PT, OT,
Speech, etc. ATRA continues to remain pro-active
and committed to this critical issue so as no
to deprive patients and consumers of the opportunity
to receive the proven benefits of Recreational
Therapy treatment services.
In the proposed
version of the MDS 3.0, Recreational Therapy treatment
services are now listed under section P with other
rehab treatment modalities. This new form will
be piloted in several states. At this time, we
do not know which states will be included in the
trial. An alert will be published via the PTRS
newsletter if Pennsylvania is selected. This will
be a huge opportunity for Recreational Therapists
in nursing home settings to impact on residents'
functional status and access to Recreational Therapy
when it is medically necessary and appropriate.
It will be important for Recreational Therapists
to educate administrators and physicians about
the benefits of RT services to the residents we
serve. In addition, accurate documentation and
adherence to standards of practice will be critical.
Facility
Options with the MDS MPAF Form
posted 11-4-02
“The
new MDS Medicare PPS Assessment Form (MPAF) will
provide facilities with new options concerning
the forms used for Medicare PPS assessments. To
allow reduction in assessment burden, facilities
can choose to complete and submit the shorter
MPAF for rather than a full MDS assessment for
Medicare PPS assessments.
Use
of the MPAF for is completely optional. If a facility
continues to submit a full assessment for PPS
reasons, the extra MDS items (that are not on
the MPAF form) will be ignored and will not be
stored in the state database. NO errors or warnings
will occur because a full assessment is submitted
for PPS reasons.
The
OBRA assessment requirements supercede the use
of the abbreviated form. When assessments are
completed for both OBRA reasons and PPS reasons,
then all OBRA-required items, all PPS-required
items, and any state-specific items must all be
submitted, with all required items being stored
in the state MDS database. When assessments are
PPS-only (no OBRA reason present), only the MPAF
items and any state-specific items will be active
and stored in the state MDS database.”
The
Pennsylvania Therapeutic Recreation Society would
like to emphasize our support of your efforts
to promote our profession through continued requests
of physician ordered recreation therapy and completing
section T of the MDS when available. Please do
not hesitate to contact the Pennsylvania Therapeutic
Recreation Society via our website: www.ptrs.org
or myself, Emily Connors, PTRS Long Term Care
Representative, if you would like additional information.
Sincerely,
Emily Connors, CTRS
PTRS Long Term Care Representative
E-Mail: ejcnn@cs.com
(717) 367-1121 ext.33726
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