Medicaid had it’s quarterly meeting with SLPs, PTs and OTs with the main focus of the meeting revolving around new changes going to the legislature regarding Home Health. It did not appear that there were many changes to the therapist requirements (documentation and supervision of COTA) and the changes being brought forward are to align our state with federal guidelines through CMS.
One change applicable to OT was that Therapy services for individuals with long term medical conditions must be reordered every 365 days (this is an increase from previous requirements).
Medicaid administration noted there was a fee change with slight increase that went into effect 7/1/2016
The Medicaid representatives did offer a chance for therapists to bring forward concerns from therapists- with the following having dedicated committees to researching and reporting back on the following:
- OT being billed by paraprofessionals in school districts, and the issues with ensuring that Medicaid understands the practice act of OT and SLP so that they don’t offer misinformation during meetings with school district personnel.
- Tele health related to school based therapy- looking at federal rules and surrounding states
- Sensory integration treatment which is now an exclusion secondary to being considered “investigational”- considering surrounding states and looking at current research with this domain.
If anyone has questions or would like me to bring forth a concern to Medicaid regarding therapy services or reimbursement, I would be happy to do so at the meeting in October.
I can be reached at clstrand@custertel.net
Cherie L. Strand, OTR/l, CHT