Bill Myers reporting for Provider, recently reported an interesting piece which caught my attention. Long term and Post-Acute Care advocates are pushing Congress to take a hard look at Medicare’s therapy reviews, which advocates say are causing needless delays and threatening patient care.
The national Association for the Support of Long Term Care (NASL) opened the gambit in December, releasing a survey that said that at least 1 third of claims subjected to the Manual Medicare Review (MMR)process since the beginning of the year are still somewhere in the ether.
And even those claims that have been processed have rarely been done so within the 10 days required by Congress, the Association said in its survey.
I’m amazed by these results because nearly three-quarters of physical and speech therapy claims, come from skilled nursing residents. Congress has allowed federal officials to review claims above $3,700 but requires the reviews to be completely “timely.”
NASL and others are teaming up to lobby Congress to tighten the process.
