[List] Items from APTA that could be of interest to you

[office at ptidaho.org]

   Here's a few items from APTA's weekly email that I'd like to pass  
onto Idaho members.

   Jill Cooper, IPTA Executive Director

   YOUR RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN SURVEY REQUESTED BY AUGUST 24
 APTA requests your assistance in completing an Environmental Scan  
Survey in order that we may gather your views.  Results will be  
summarized for use in an upcoming Association strategic planning  
process. An environmental analysis identifies trends or changes that  
are occurring, or will occur within the next year to several years,  
which could affect the nature, direction, or viability of the physical  
therapy profession. The survey is being emailed directly to randomly  
selected individuals and may also be accessed on APTA's Web site at
http://www.apta.org/AM/TemplateRedirect.cfm?Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=41164. Please note that all data collected will be in the aggregate and that no specific comments will be attributed to any individual or organization. Please promote this survey among your membership.  Completed surveys should be e-mailed to environmentalscan at apta.org no later than Friday, August 24, 2007. Questions? Contact Kristy Benton-Grover (kristybenton-grover at apta.org or ext 3251) or Janet Bezner (janetbezner at apta.org or ext  
8516).

 CMS Proposes New Reporting Rule
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a  
proposed rule  
(www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=2285&intNumPerPage=10&checkDate=&checkKey=&srchType=1&numDays=3500&srchOpt=0&srchData=&keywordType=All&chkNewsType=1%2C+2%2C+3%2C+4%2C+5&intPage=&showAll=&pYear=&year=&desc=&cboOrder=date) to clear up confusion over outpatient wound-care payments and implement penalties for certain facilities that do not report on quality measures. In the proposed rule for 2008 hospital outpatient prospective payment, CMS clarifies that physical therapists performing wound-care services under a certified plan of care in an outpatient setting must bill under the physician fee schedule. However, for nurses who provide wound care using the same Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes, the services would be placed into an ambulatory payment classification (APC) group and billed under the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS). CMS also proposes reducing payments for outpatient hospital departments in 2009 by 2% if they do not report on 10 quality measures identified in the rule. Meanwhile, the agency is considering 30 new quality measures for 2010. One of these is screening for falls risk, which is a measure that physical therapists report under the PQRI program. The proposed rule, which APTA has summarized (www.apta.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Hospitals1&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=41332) for members, will be published in the Federal Register on August 2. Comments on the rule will be accepted until September 14. Proposed changes take effect January 1,  
2008.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ptidaho.org/pipermail/list/attachments/20070730/d01dca47/attachment.html