Medicare updates reimbursement criteria for “maintenance” therapy services

A Qui­et “Sea Change” in Medicare (The New York Times):

“In Jan­u­ary, Medicare offi­cials updat­ed the agen­cy’s pol­i­cy man­u­al –the rule book for every­thing Medicare does– to erase any notion that improve­ment is nec­es­sary to receive cov­er­age for skilled care. That means Medicare will now pay for phys­i­cal ther­a­py, nurs­ing care and oth­er ser­vices for ben­e­fi­cia­ries with chron­ic dis­eases like mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis, Parkin­son’s or Alzheimer’s dis­ease in order to main­tain their con­di­tion and pre­vent deterioration.”

Relat­ed articles:

• Medicare to update reim­burse­ment cri­te­ria for degen­er­a­tive diseases
• Retool­ing cog­ni­tive reha­bil­i­ta­tion for patients with trau­mat­ic brain injury