Action Needed Now on RT Bill

The following action alert was recently sent out by ATRA:

SUBJECT: H.R. 4248 “The Ensuring Medicare Access To Recreational Therapy Act Of 2007” has been introduced in the United States House of Representatives

ACTION ALERT
Introduction of ATRA’s House Bill, H.R. 4248!!
“The Ensuring Medicare Access To Recreational Therapy Act Of 2007”

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUESTED: The American Therapeutic Recreation Association asks you to contact/re-contact your federal Representative to request their support for HR 4248!

We recommend that you do this with a personal phone call or by scheduling a direct meeting with your Representative or their staff person.

Please Act Now!! Contact Your Member Of Congress!!
We need TO BUILD support FoR H.R. 4248 Now !!

We have 20 Co-sponsors for HR 4248 and need your support to increase this number!!!

You can check if your representative has signed on as a co-sponsor by going to WWW.THOMAS.GOV

IF NOT, CALL THEIR OFFICE AND ASK WHY THEY HAVE NOT SIGNED ON!!

H.R. 4248 – BRIEF SUMMARY:

H.R. 4248 is the “The Ensuring Medicare Access To Recreational Therapy Act Of 2007” sponsored by Reps. Tauscher (D-CA) and English (R-PA).

Overview: The purpose of the bill is to help ensure that Medicare patients receive recreational therapy services when such services are prescribed by their doctors and warranted by their health condition. This is done by directing CMS to publicly clarify current Medicare coverage and payment policy.

Specifically:

The bill directs CMS to issue notification in the Medicare Benefits Policy Manual (or by regulation) that recreational therapy is a covered Medicare service in inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPFs), and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs).

In addition, it recognizes that the costs of providing recreational therapy services have already been built into the prospective payment systems for each of these three settings.

Finally, the bill defines recreational therapy services as skilled rehabilitation therapy (not just diversional activities) that must be provided by a qualified recreational therapist when required by a patient’s condition and prescribed by a physician as part of a facility’s plan of care for the patient.

It is important to note that this resolution will not create new Medicare coverage or additional costs to the Medicare program because it would not add services to the Medicare program.


WHO TO CONTACT:

Reach your Congressman through the Congressional switchboard at 202- 225 -3121.