Saturday, August 11, 2007
See Response #7-- New Question from Provider, Regarding Medicaid
Does any one know an answer to this question? I'll followup too-- "I am concerned about the Medicaid raise. What happened? The memo I got today indicated a rate of $10 per 15 minute unit. This is the same rate per hour as we have been using for ten years. " Thanks.
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7 comments:
My understanding is that the new rates should be in place by October, or at least by the end of this year, beginning of next. The new units which are in place will help with retroactive payment from now until the kinks are worked out.
Yes, we are still looking for the raise too! The changes only adjust SLP to the same billing (4 units at 15 min. per unit) to match the OT and PT procedures.
The following is submitted for Anonymous Provider: Medicaid has changed Speech Therapy units to 15, 30, 45, 60 minutes, depending upon the child’s attention span; this now gives Speech Therapists the option of providing 45 minute sessions which was not possible before. So as of August 8th, therapists can bill for 4 units.
Medicaid could not increase the rate yet because the rate increase is embedded in a new State Plan which is awaiting approval from CMS. It is highly advised that we as a profession let this run through the proper channels without intervention. The state and federal government have many policy and procedures that have to be done in the proper order; our calling, complaining, and intervening is not helping. The current staff at Medicaid have been our best advocates yet, and we must use caution when calling to complain about things they have no control over.
The Medicaid office does not have control over the time of implementation for the rate increase; it must go through CMS approval. So there is no specific time frame for when the rate increase will occur; at this time, it is just a guess for anyone to specify a day, month or year. It will go through eventually. All therapists will find out about the increase the same way we found out about the unit change, in a memo from Medicaid. Submitted for Anonymous Provider
My original hope when I read the memo was that the 10.00 was the INCREASE per unit, I was confused because I didn't anticipate the same rate for a unit change. Apparently I was sadly mistaken.
Do we have an update from our Lobbyists about the increase and unit change? I understand that we are waiting for approval from CMS but I haven't seen any information from the Lobbyist group since the 04/05/07 e-mail regarding the change. I looked on the SCSHA page and didn't see any new info.
Does anyone know current status from our lobbyist? I'm looking into it-- unfortunately I'll be out of town and so should have some info to post or comment when I get back Monday Sept. 10.
Hi folks, Lily Nalty directed me to this discussion thread, and asked for my input. I understand everyone's frustration with this issue - I'm frustrated, too. When the SCSHA Executive Board learned of the rate increases, we were so anxious to share the good news that it seems we announced it prematurely. I regret that. We made the announcement based both on our great confidence that the changes would occur (which we still have), AND on our understanding of the timeline for those changes (which clearly we had a poor grasp of). The bureaucratic wheels of government turn way too slowly! Earlier this week, I have been reassured that these changes are coming - both CMS and DHHS are exchanging a tremendous amount of information, after which the CMS board in Atlanta will convene to approve the changes. It is my understanding that the revised rates will still be retroactive to January of this year. As I saw in one of the previous posts, it is extremely important that people do not try to contact CMS, because this slows down the process, and may even reduce the likelihood that the changes will occur. Frankly, this really multiplies our frustration - it's hard to be patient (and silent) when we have had to wait so much longer than we thought.
Thank you all for your patience. Capitol Consultants will be providing a legislative update in the next issue of In Touch, which will discuss this issue.
Best,
Charley Adams
President, SCSHA
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