Don’t laugh. History has demonstrated that we will be asked to support such lunacy in a few years. I would rather support the elimination of the month of Feb, deep sixing pennies, or forgetting about daylight savings time.
History bears repeating:
-there was a medicare cap for everybody but hospitals
-there was a moratorium of the cap
-there were several legislative extensions to the moratorium of the cap
-during this entire time we were told there would be an alternative to the cap
-the moratorium ended and the cap was put in place
-PT’s cap is combined with speech but OT has its own cap (wish I was kidding)
-But. An exception process to the cap was put in place. If you put altzheimer’s as an additional diagnosis, you could see the patient with no cap (just like a hospital can on all patients)
-The exception process expires in 31 Dec 2007
-We are asked to support legislation that extends the exception process up to 2 years while an alternative is being developed
-In the words of Yogi, “It’s deja vu all over again”
What about the long planned alternative? What about the fact PT is 1.5% of the medicare budget-why all the fuss? Why don’t we fight for eliminating the cap rather than extending moratoriums, exceptions processes, and the like? Why are we spending a disproportionate amount of time, resources, and money on 1.5% of the CMS budget? Why is there no cap on primary care, pharmacy, MRI’s, lab, and surgery?
-All this and there is a writer’s strike that is delaying my beloved 24
Thoughts?
