Skilled Nursing Facility Billing for Changes in Therapy: Improvements are Needed

Skilled Nursing Facility Billing for Changes in Therapy: Improvements are Needed (OEI-02-13-00611)

CMS introduced three types of therapy assessments to more quickly capture when beneficiaries start therapy, end therapy, and decrease or increase therapy. However, we found that SNF billing for changes in therapy increased only slightly. In addition, SNFs used assessments very differently when decreasing therapy than when increasing it, costing Medicare $143 million over 2 years. Further, SNFs frequently used the new start of therapy assessment incorrectly. For example, SNFs often used a start-of-therapy assessment but billed for no therapy during the stay.

• Read Full Summary http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-02-13-00611.asp
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