Medicare recognized holiday

[Guest guest]

I work in a SNF.

1) Does Medicare recognize holidays?

2) Does Medicare recognize if a holiday falls on a Sunday that the

staff gets Monday off?

3) If we come in to treat managed care patients or patients in their

PPS window on the holiday, do all patients have to be treated that day?

4) If an employee wants to work the holiday and take another day off

during the week, can a patient miss treatment on that day and it be

considered the holiday?

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Beverly Denny, LPT

[Guest guest]

In my previous conversations with Medicare, it's been pretty clear that

they do not recognize holidays in our ability to provide patient care.

Having said this, it obviously depends on the setting. Most outpatient

facilities typically recognize the holidays, however acute, skilled and

inpatient rehab facilities are still required to provide the medically

necessary care as defined by CMS guidelines. In the past Inpatient

Rehab Facilities often would take a day off for the holiday (often times

setting up a holiday activity with a limited staff- i.e. we would build

functional activities into the Thanksgiving holiday with cooking

activities, etc. for a holiday dinner on the unit). With the increased

emphasis on a rehab facility's requirement to provide 3 hours of therapy

5 days a week, it certainly limits flexibility around holidays and often

calls for more creative planning and staff scheduling. Each FI

interprets the 3 hour rule differently, but they are all becoming more

stringent.

Nick Kagal

Southwest Regional Vice President

MediServe

Office/Fax:

Mobile:

nkagal@...

" Optimizing the Value of Patient Care "