Re: Medicare, Medicaide and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (S2499)

[Guest guest]

I just updated our Medicare Fee Schedule yesterday for 2008, and according

to our payer, WPS Insurance, all of our services went down by between 10 and

15% each... We're looking at dropping the contract with Medicare just

because we'll be losing money on services by next year. As it stands now,

I'm already unhappy with the new fee schedule, and as far as I can tell, the

Medicare/Caid/SCHIP bill had no effect on the fees.

Adam Jeschke

Optimal Physical Therapy

Lake Mills, WI

> Hello Group and please enlighten me.

>

> On the APTA website it talks about how President Bush signed the

> Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (S2499). I

> understand it to also say this act elimitates the proposed 10.1% cuts

> of the Physician Fee Schedule and instead increases the rates by .5%

> through June of 2008?

>

> Does this mean that I should take the 2007 Fee Schedue for my area

> and ad .5% to those rates to calculate what I can expect my first 6

> months of 2008 reimbusement to be?

>

> That is how I'm interpreting the info. from the APTA website but I

> have seen no discussion about in the posts so I'm assuming I'm

> missing something.

>

> Thanks for any info.

>

> Kristie Leverenz, PT

> United Therapy Services

> 7411 112th St.

> Blue Grass, IA 52726

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Looks like I was wrong on my last statement. I'll be changing my fees back

to 2007 rates now plus 0.5%. Thanks for bringing the APTA website to

everyone's attention. It still doesn't make any sense at all to reduce our

fees as much as they have proposed, we already can't make a living in

private practice if we were to see exclusively Medicare patients.

Adam Jeschke

Optimal Physical Therapy

Lake Mills, WI

> I just updated our Medicare Fee Schedule yesterday for 2008, and according

> to our payer, WPS Insurance, all of our services went down by between 10 and

> 15% each... We're looking at dropping the contract with Medicare just

> because we'll be losing money on services by next year. As it stands now,

> I'm already unhappy with the new fee schedule, and as far as I can tell, the

> Medicare/Caid/SCHIP bill had no effect on the fees.

>

> Adam Jeschke

> Optimal Physical Therapy

> Lake Mills, WI

>

>

>

>

>

> > Hello Group and please enlighten me.

> >

> > On the APTA website it talks about how President Bush signed the

> > Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (S2499). I

> > understand it to also say this act elimitates the proposed 10.1% cuts

> > of the Physician Fee Schedule and instead increases the rates by .5%

> > through June of 2008?

> >

> > Does this mean that I should take the 2007 Fee Schedue for my area

> > and ad .5% to those rates to calculate what I can expect my first 6

> > months of 2008 reimbusement to be?

> >

> > That is how I'm interpreting the info. from the APTA website but I

> > have seen no discussion about in the posts so I'm assuming I'm

> > missing something.

> >

> > Thanks for any info.

> >

> > Kristie Leverenz, PT

> > United Therapy Services

> > 7411 112th St.

> > Blue Grass, IA 52726

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

>

>

[Guest guest]

Adam,

Not to sound a dismal note but Medicare is our best payer in Florida.

We often have over 50% Medicare caseload.

I routinely see and hear PT practices from around the nation claiming

$90-95 per visit collections but here in Florida my collection

experience is closer to $70.

I admit a 10% cut would be devastating, however.

Do you know of other areas in the country whose collection experience

is similar to mine?

(By the way, my AR is 130% of my monthly revenues and my DSO is under

60 days).

Tim , PT

TimRichPT@...

www.MedicalArtsRehab.com

> >

> > > Hello Group and please enlighten me.

> > >

> > > On the APTA website it talks about how President Bush signed the

> > > Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (S2499). I

> > > understand it to also say this act elimitates the proposed 10.1%

cuts

> > > of the Physician Fee Schedule and instead increases the rates by .5%

> > > through June of 2008?

> > >

> > > Does this mean that I should take the 2007 Fee Schedue for my area

> > > and ad .5% to those rates to calculate what I can expect my first 6

> > > months of 2008 reimbusement to be?

> > >

> > > That is how I'm interpreting the info. from the APTA website but I

> > > have seen no discussion about in the posts so I'm assuming I'm

> > > missing something.

> > >

> > > Thanks for any info.

> > >

> > > Kristie Leverenz, PT

> > > United Therapy Services

> > > 7411 112th St.

> > > Blue Grass, IA 52726

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> >

> >

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

You guys should be rejoicing at your windfalls!

Here in Western NY Medicare visit of Ther ex and Manual therapy = ~46.00

Commercial insurances from 39 to 45 / visit

Medicaid HMO ~ 25 / visit.

one HMO pays 18 / visit.

WC / NF max out @ 48.00 / visit.

Wish we had your numbers!

Mark Milleville PT

Wheatfield Physical Therapy

North Tonawanda, NY

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[Guest guest]

Tim,

You seem to be one of the lucky ones. Or perhaps I just haven't gotten my

head out of my you-know-what far enough to realize what I'm doing wrong.

Generally, we get about $20-25 per line of service for Medicare patients.

In 2007, an Initial Eval paid $67.85 from Medicare and the Supplemental in

total, and in 2008 - when the new fee schedules go into effect - an Initial

Eval will only pay $58 something. That's a 14+% reduction on the most

important service our clinics can perform.

Our A/R is far from 130% of our monthly collections, more like 30% of our

annual collections, and we often don't see a return on our claims - even

electronic ones - for up to 3 months. When we were filing exclusively paper

claims, we had instances where we would have to submit a claim three times

before the insurance company would acknowledge their receipt of it. Now we

have an electronic " paper trail " with notes on whether or not the claim was

accepted by the payer, so we should be getting our turn around time down to

under 45 days now. We also just started using a collection agency for

overdue claims and patient accounts, further improving our returns.

Hopefully in a couple months, I'll be praising the insurance system as the

most efficient way of doing business in the world.... but I doubt it.

Adam Jeschke

Optimal Physical Therapy

Lake Mills, WI

On Jan 9, 2008 4:42 PM, C. <

timrichpt@...> wrote:

> Adam,

>

> Not to sound a dismal note but Medicare is our best payer in Florida.

> We often have over 50% Medicare caseload.

>

> I routinely see and hear PT practices from around the nation claiming

> $90-95 per visit collections but here in Florida my collection

> experience is closer to $70.

>

> I admit a 10% cut would be devastating, however.

>

> Do you know of other areas in the country whose collection experience

> is similar to mine?

> (By the way, my AR is 130% of my monthly revenues and my DSO is under

> 60 days).

>

> Tim , PT

> TimRichPT@... <TimRichPT%40MedicalArtsRehab.com>

> www.MedicalArtsRehab.com

>

>

>

> > >

> > > > Hello Group and please enlighten me.

> > > >

> > > > On the APTA website it talks about how President Bush signed the

> > > > Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (S2499). I

> > > > understand it to also say this act elimitates the proposed 10.1%

> cuts

> > > > of the Physician Fee Schedule and instead increases the rates by .5%

> > > > through June of 2008?

> > > >

> > > > Does this mean that I should take the 2007 Fee Schedue for my area

> > > > and ad .5% to those rates to calculate what I can expect my first 6

> > > > months of 2008 reimbusement to be?

> > > >

> > > > That is how I'm interpreting the info. from the APTA website but I

> > > > have seen no discussion about in the posts so I'm assuming I'm

> > > > missing something.

> > > >

> > > > Thanks for any info.

> > > >

> > > > Kristie Leverenz, PT

> > > > United Therapy Services

> > > > 7411 112th St.

> > > > Blue Grass, IA 52726

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > >

> > >

> >

> >

> >