Will the Outpatient Rehabilitation Therapy Caps Be Eliminated?

On 1/6/2009, Republican Senator John Ensign  was a very busy senator.  On the first day of Congress, he introduced six bills.  One of those bills was S. 46.  (A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to repeal the Medicare outpatient rehabilitation therapy caps.)  There were a total of 39 bills read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.  I wonder why all the bills had to be read twice?  That actually strikes me as funny.

In comparing the amount of currently reported support for each of the 39 bills, 64.10% had no cosponsors, 15.38% had 1 cosponsor, 7.69% had 2 cosponsors, 2.56% had 3 cosponsors, 2.56% had 4 cosponsors, 5.13% had 6 cosponsors and 2.56% had 11 cosponsors.  S. 46 had 11 cosponsors (8 Democrats and 3 Republicans).

At this point in time it appears S. 46 has a nice beginning being the only bill that has almost a dozen cosponsors.  If this bill passes, I'm sure Medicare beneficiaries will appreciate the opportunity to have greater access to continuous care combined with the consistency of care this bill will allow (no need to change physical therapists or locations if the Medicare beneficiary initiated services at a location other than a hospital setting).  Medicare will probably appreciate the continuity of care so there is no decline in function between changing locations and appreciate the cost savings of not having to pay for redundant services because of a change in location and physical therapist provider.

The American Physical Therapy Association created a press release on S. 46.  The American Physical Therapy Association also has this topic as a topic on their blog, Moving Forward.  

You can subscribe to the feed on this bill.  It's nice to see the bill introduced so early in the year versus in November 2009. 

Selena