CMS Exempts PT
Services from Certain Accreditation and Quality
Requirements
[Posted 09/09/2008]
The
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
have announced certain exemptions for physical therapists and
other healthcare professionals who provide “durable
medical equipment and prosthetic and orthotic
services to Medicare beneficiaries.”
In order to bill for such services, these healthcare
providers were originally expected to meet certain
quality standards as well as be accredited by an
independent accreditation organization.
Several healthcare associations banded together
to persuade CMS that physical therapists and similar
providers were already meeting high quality
standards and further regulation was unwarranted. “This
is a huge victory for patients and health care
professionals across this nation,”
American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)
President R Scott Ward, PT, PhD, said. “Physical
therapists already provide care of the highest
quality, so these unnecessary requirements would
have been overly burdensome, costly and could have
created obstacles for patients needing these
services.”
Related Links:
APTA News Release
CMS Website
Go to News
Summary Page:
Health-related News Summaries