Tag Archives: IRF

I have seen many different options for dispensing equipment that is “required” for a patients ADL use. The most important question is whether we provide the item for home-going use; “Is the item a personal convenience item not generally covered by Medicare?” If it is categorized as personal convenience, what is the medically necessary rationale for the facility to provide…
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It’s budget time of year and the annual challenge begins. Do more with less!  ”You can do it, you did it last year.” Sound familiar?  Sure it does!  And in this past year, while operating with less, you examined every process, squeezed out as much waste as possible so your unit would be the leanest, meanest operational unit possible. You…
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For those in inpatient rehabilitation, the 75% rule (now 60%) has long been a discussion to validate and uphold an exemption status that defines your ability to provide special services at the intensity to earn a designation called ”Inpatient Rehabilitation” whether you are free standing (IRF) or a unit (IRU). IRFs, having fought the long, hard battle with Congress, won…
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For years, within acute care hospital walls, levels of care have been partitioned and a patient moved between those levels specific to the needs of the individual.  There are emergency departments, critical care units, sub-specialty areas for dialysis, maternity, cardiac care, trauma and the list goes on. You name it and there is most likely a larger care center that can specifically…
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Nothing distinguishes a rehabilitation setting more than the stated goals of their rehabilitation programs and the outcomes evidence they present in demonstration of success.  Next time you have the opportunity to look at a rehabilitation provider’s website compare its goal or mission statement to its link for reported outcomes. If they are not related something is amiss. Setting goals is…
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By now you all are most likely aware of the President’s deficit reduction plan proposing to turn back time and reintroduce the 75 percent Compliance Rule for IRFs.  If this proposal is enacted the patient access to rehabilitation hospitals will be significantly limited and some IRFs and IRUs will be forced to reduce bed count or even close.   This proposal…
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Medicare has various ways to pay for services with more and more levels of care being paid on a Prospective Payment System methodology or PPS.  Beware however,  PPS systems are not all alike.   Inpatient (IPPS) acute care is paid by DRG as are long term care hospital settings.  Other payments are paid based on a tool and variations of…
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Often I receive information from my professional organization APTA at the local or national level coaxing me to a call to action.  Although I wish I could say I was responsive with every nudge, that wouldn’t be truthful.  However, this past week is different.  H.R.1546 to preserve access to beneficiaries is a call to action for the entire rehabilitation profession,…
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Connecting the dots in healthcare delivery continues to frustrate patients, payors and providers.  Linking the resources across a continuum of care and ensuring effective and efficient transitions poses threats to clinical and financial outcomes. Alternative delivery models or Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are on schedule to begin January 1, 2012. And while the specifics of how this is going to…
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The 2010 Rule has no doubt changed many practices within a rehabilitation facility. Oddly enough, much of what was published was known and practiced similarly before 2010, but the regulations and very specific clarification seemed to bring about one thing; accountability without a doubt. Can we be accountable to very specific interpretations of a rule and hold to those standards…
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