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In the post-acute care venue, there is much debate on exactly what is the correct level of care required to get the patient back to their home setting. “Medical necessity is a United States legal doctrine, related to activities which may be justified as reasonable, necessary, and/or appropriate, based on evidenced-based clinical standards of care,” per Wikipedia definition. Medicare’s definition is the same;…
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GOT LACTOSE? If your treatment regimen includes a dry powder inhaler (DPI), your answer may be yes. In a recent conversation, a colleague alerted me to the fact that at his facility, Symbicort was not being prescribed for patients with lactose allergies. I thought, “Wow, who knew?!” As I began digging a bit further, I discovered that a number of…
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Outpatient rehabilitation therapy services provided by hospitals have been a watershed opportunity for revenue growth for the past 25 years. For many providers growth of these services lines has exceeded inpatient therapy revenues. One reason for such growth has been the fact that hospitals have been exempt from the Medicare payment limitations known as “Therapy Caps”. Do not think this…
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As the economy rebounds, the unemployment picture brightens with evidence of trend data provided by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. And while it may be quite some time before it is business as usual again, things are looking promising for the rest of the economy. That is, until I read that demand for healthcare practitioners dipped in March according…
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Knowledge is power! Education is empowerment! Empowering the COPD patient to self-manage their disease is imperative to improved wellness, decreased readmissions and realized cost savings. The respiratory therapist in the STACH is uniquely positioned to empower their patients through disease education and management strategy. These efforts need to be resourced with a view that extends beyond the patient hospital stay….
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In post-acute rehabilitation, the measurement, capture, analysis and reporting of outcomes have a 25 year history. It has established a precedent for industry comparison of provider performance to drive improvement within the rehabilitation sector. Better than, worse than, or equal to others references how one is doing when matched against one’s peers in areas of agreed measurement. This is good,…
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Do we believe we can hold all costs neutral (clothing, housing, education, salaries) to a freeze for the next 10 years? Payment for healthcare is hedging on the reality there is no other way to remain solvent except to adopt that stance. Get ready, the freeze is about to begin; not that we haven’t felt it pretty significantly in IRF/IRU…
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There is no doubt the rehabilitation industry is being transformed. Yes, we all feel the impact of stricter enforcement of regulations, guidelines and clinical expectations for practice and compliance. These changes, while significant, may not come close to the pressures of increased transparency and reporting of quality and performance.  Soon, mandatory reporting of quality and performance will appear online and…
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While catching up on my reading, I came across an excellent study titled “Effects of 2 Exercise Training Programs on Physical Activity in Daily Life in Patients With COPD” (Respiratory Care, November 2011 / Volume 56 / Number 11). The study set out to ascertain whether high intensity versus low intensity exercise for pulmonary rehabilitation had more of an effect…
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Thanks to a heads-up received while visiting a client in Florida who was reading the new IRF PAI Manual 2012 for her leisure reading the night before, we can share this link with you. I’m smiling with Saloni, because I am also accused of reading CMS literature as nighttime leisure reading! This long awaited update was mainly necessary because of…
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