By extending the therapy cap exceptions process for another year, Congress has recognized the need to take action to protect Medicare beneficiaries who need rehabilitation services the most. Data show that patients with stroke, hip fracture, Parkinson disease and other conditions that require extensive rehabilitation are most likely to be affected by the arbitrary Medicare therapy caps.

While legislation repealing the therapy caps is the best long-term policy solution, this legislation would take an important step forward to protect Medicare beneficiaries from the impact of a "hard" therapy cap. We look forward to working with Congress to completely repeal the caps - solving this issue once and for all.

We are also pleased to see that Congress recognized the need to prevent the scheduled reduction in provider payments due to the flawed "sustainable growth rate" in the Medicare physician fee schedule. Physical therapists providing outpatient services are reimbursed from Medicare through the same system as physicians and were facing significant cuts starting January 1.

The impact of a hard Medicare therapy cap, combined with cuts in the fee schedule payments, would have been detrimental for both patients and the physical therapy profession. We are pleased to see language in the bill offering incentives for reporting quality measures.

APTA has been supportive of the development of quality measures and looks forward to working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in developing appropriate quality measures for the new reporting system. We look forward to the House and Senate voting on this important legislation.

Source: American Physical Therapy Association