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Authors Posts by Melissa Dehoff

Melissa Dehoff

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Melissa Dehoff is responsible for all medical rehabilitation and brain injury service issues. Ms. Dehoff attends multiple state-level meetings to advocate on behalf of members on brain injury and rehabilitation issues and is a member of the Department of Health Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Board.

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) will be conducting a virtual Brain Injury Fundamentals course on March 20, 2024 from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm. The course will provide foundational knowledge about working with individuals who have a brain injury, and is ideal for non-licensed health care professionals, first responders, and support staff.

This course is self-paced, so those who are unable to participate in the in-person course due to scheduling conflicts or other commitments have the opportunity to complete the course with greater flexibility. Please note that while the self-paced option offers 24/7 access for independent learning and development, there is a two-hour live instructor component as well. To participate in the session, please register here.

As noted in a previous alert from the Department of Human Services (DHS), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has also been providing updates regarding the recent cybersecurity incident that impacted Change Healthcare (a unit of UnitedHealth Group). HHS has noted that their first priority is to help coordinate efforts to avoid disruptions to care throughout the health care system.

On March 5, 2024, HHS announced immediate steps that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is taking to assist providers to continue to serve patients. CMS will continue to communicate with the health care community and assist, as appropriate. Providers should continue to work with all their payers for the latest updates on how to receive timely payments.

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On March 1, 2024, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) posted an update on the Review Choice Demonstration for Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) Services web page that announced they will be expanding the Review Choice Demonstration for IRF services in Pennsylvania on June 17, 2024. The demonstration will apply to IRF admissions occurring on or after June 17, 2024. IRF admissions prior to the June 17 date are not part of the demonstration, and IRF providers must select either 100% pre-claim review or 100% post-payment review between May 3, 2024, and June 2, 2024.

Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) for Jurisdiction L (which includes the state of Pennsylvania) is Novitas Medicare Solutions, who processes claims for IRFs located in Pennsylvania. Novitas will be directly involved in the RCD and created a dedicated RCD page on their website. The page includes additional information on background and general information, timelines, the two choices for claims review (pre-payment and post-payment), IRF RCD contact information, educational events, and other resources.

The IRF RCD began in Alabama in August 2023. CMS has cited that creating a review choice process will ensure Medicare coverage and documentation requirements are likely met. CMS feels this program will reduce the number of Medicare appeals, improve provider compliance with Medicare program rules, does not alter the Medicare IRF benefit, and should not delay medically necessary care to Medicare beneficiaries.

RCPA will continue to update members as additional information is received. Members are encouraged to review the information on the CMS RCD web page and Novitas RCD web page. Questions regarding this information can be directed to Melissa Dehoff.

The meeting documents from the February 1, 2024, Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Subcommittee meeting are now available. These documents include the transcript and PowerPoint presentations. You can view the documents below:

The next LTSS Subcommittee meeting is scheduled for March 7, 2024, from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm in the PA Department of Education’s Honors Suite at 333 Market St. in Harrisburg, PA. The option to participate via webinar is also an option. The agenda for the March meeting is available here.

To participate in the meeting via webinar, please visit here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. If you plan to participate via phone, the dial-in number is: (562) 247-8422; PIN: 871-250-554#.

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In order to avoid a potential 2 percent decrease in the annual payment update for fiscal year (FY) 2025 (October 2024 – September 2025), inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF) are reminded that they must submit complete data in calendar year (CY) 2023 for all quality measures that are a part of the IRF Quality Reporting Program (QRP).

IRF Patient Assessment Instrument (IRF-PAI) assessment data and data submitted via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) for July 1 – September 30 (Q3) of calendar year 2023 must be submitted no later than 11:59 pm on February 15, 2024.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) contractor Swingtech sends informational messages to IRFs that are not meeting Annual Increase Factor (AIF) thresholds on a quarterly basis ahead of each submission deadline. These messages were sent late last week. IRFs are encouraged to check to see if any members of their QRP team received a message from the email address “QRPHelp@swingtech.com.” If members need to add or change the email addresses to which these messages are sent, please email QRP Help and be sure to include your facility name and CCN along with any requested email updates. Any IRFs who receive a Swingtech email message are encouraged to identify and review the measures stated as missing data for Q3 2023 ASAP, and resolve any data issues by the February 15 deadline.

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Temple University has announced free online training options that have been approved to meet personal care home (PCH) annual training requirements. There are two spring 2024 training sessions with various dates to choose from. To learn more about the training sessions and to register, visit the following links:

Participation is limited for each course. If you register and later discover you are unable to participate, please cancel your registration to create space for other participants. If you have any questions about these trainings or if you require assistance with registration, please email PCH Administration.