Media Contact: Joanne Constantine
(312) 464-9700

December 2007

AAPM&R Advocacy Results in a Win for Rehab Patients and PM&R

After years of advocacy work to educate legislators on the importance of inpatient rehabilitation, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R) is proud to announce that Congress has passed a bill to freeze implementation of the 75% Rule at the 60% level.

The Medicare package recently passed by Congress allows comorbid conditions to continue to count toward meeting the rule’s threshold. Additionally, the bill requires that the Department of Health and Human Services study beneficiary access to inpatient rehabilitation services and make recommendations for classifying inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and units.

The Academy supports the provisions as an intermediate step in improving access to acute comprehensive rehabilitation for people with disabilities. This provision constitutes an enormous victory for the specialty and for rehabilitation patients alike. The Academy will continue to work toward the long-term goal of passing legislation that will remove admissions quotas and return the physiatrist to the position of freely determining what type of rehabilitation is medically necessary for any given patient.

The Medicare package addressed several other issues on the AAPM&R advocacy agenda:

• Congress passed a temporary fix of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR). The Academy will continue to aggressively advocate for the repeal of the SGR and revision of the system to reflect actual practice costs.

• Medicare will extend the current exceptions process for the caps on outpatient rehabilitation therapy services through June 30, 2008. This allows for continued access to outpatient rehabilitation therapy for the most vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries, those who need rehabilitation services the most. Congress will likely address this issue again before this extension expires. The Academy will continue to strongly advocate for a long-term fix.

• Congress placed a six-month moratorium on the issuance of final regulations to restrict allowable services under the Medicaid Rehabilitation services option. The Academy will continue to strongly advocate to prevent implementation of the final regulations.

AAPM&R is the national medical specialty society of more than 7500 physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) physicians, also called physiatrists. PM&R physicians care for patients with acute and chronic pain, catastrophic injuries, musculoskeletal disorders, back pain, and work- or sports-related injuries. They also coordinate the long term rehabilitation process for patients with spinal cord injuries, cancer, stroke or other neurological disorders, brain injuries, amputations, and multiple sclerosis.

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