URGENT: Medicare Outpatient Reimbursement at Stake

We need YOU to assist in a critical and time sensitive effort to ensure that your patients are represented in the analysis that will determine future Medicare Part B reimbursement.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are in the final stages of data collection to develop a payment system that will replace the therapy caps. The number of speech-language pathology patients in the sample is currently below the target. With data collection due to end in June, the need for more patients is crucial. You must enroll as a data collection site and be prepared to collect data by February.

The data collection involves administering an electronic outcome measurement tool at admission and discharge for Medicare outpatients receiving speech-language pathology services. Information about the DOPTA project is available in an article of The ASHA Leader or by contacting via email Ingrida Lusis at ilusis@asha.org or Janet Brown at jbrown@asha.org. For more information about the data collection process, contact Ann Meadow at ann.meadow@cms.hhs.gov. To see the assessment, email optherapy@rti.org with the subject heading: Send CARE-C/CARE-F Tools.