ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

Go and remind yourself of Governor Cuomo's ideas for Early Intervention!! READ FROM PAGES 266-274 TO REMEMBER WHAT WAS PROPOSED Providers, please remember! If the Governor had his way you would have been negotiating rates directly with third party payors.  NOW they say "Go ahead and just accept whatever they are willing to pay." NEXT YEAR they will probably try to put this language in again - and then you will regret JUST ACCEPTING whatever they are willing to pay. Sorry for the CAPS, but everyone needs to understand this and write a letter to the Bureau of Early Intervention and tell them that you WILL NOT just accept what third party payors offer and that there MUST be some allowance for negotiating reasonable rates because we KNOW what the State's intention was and we KNOW that all this is still heading down the same path as soon as the Governor has another opportunity to submit his ideas in an Executive Budget next year! Every Early Intervention pr...

We received this email from the NYS Bureau of Early Intervention today. I would like to advise providers as well as the Bureau of the potential unintended consequences of this policy Dear Colleague: The Bureau of Early Intervention has recently received numerous inquiries regarding agreements being sent to EIP providers by insurers or insurer clearinghouses in response to claims submitted for EIP services. The agreements ask EIP providers to accept claim amounts proposed by the insurer as payment in full from the insurer for the claim which are lower than the State-established EIP rate. This is to advise EIP providers that providers should sign and return these agreements to insurers as requested. The agreement is specific to each claim. The interim State Fiscal Agent, McGuinness, is tracking all reimbursement from insurers to individual providers. The balance owed to EIP providers who receive a payment less than the State-established rate for EIP services from insurer...

OK so there are days when I start wondering how many years I am going to spend crawling around on the floor with children.  Sometimes I just wonder how many miles are meant to be crawled in a lifetime.  This leads to thoughts about how appealing academia might be where I can spend a greater amount of my time sitting instead of running/hopping/crawling/etc. The concept of telerehabilitation appeals to me - instead of/in addition to academia maybe a career in telerehabilitation is another option for my decrepit knees?  I have no inherent bias against telerehabilitation; in fact, I kind of think it would be great to find out that some types of OT treatment could be effectively delivered in a distance format. Our regulatory system is miles behind the telerehabilitation movement.  I attended a well publicized telerehab 'continuing ed' seminar recently and hoped to have some questions about regulations answered, but they really didn't have any.  I have 'continuin...

Well.  I sometimes write the titles to my blog posts before I write the posts themselves.   That is what happened with this post, but now I am derailed but I am going to keep the title because it is still apt. I just finished reading the June 3, 2013 issue of OT Practice.  The cover story is entitled 'On the Go: Safely Transporting Children with Special Health Care Needs.'  This is an excellent article, full of practical and relevant information about the topic.  The Riley Hospital for Children at the Indiana University School of Medicine has blazed this trail for years and years - and that fact bothered me because I could not understand why I was reading yet another article about child passenger safety as if it was the first article being written.  I totally appreciate the article; I just don't want to see any more calls arguing about HOW or WHY this is a legitimate area of concern.  I think it should be established by now. That cause me to beg...