Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Department of Health and Human Services
Attention: CMS-1538-P
P.O. Box 8012
Baltimore, MD 21244-8012
Re: Proposed Rule for Medicare Program; Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Prospective Payment System for Federal Fiscal Year 2010 (42 CFR, parts 412, May 6, 2009)

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a recreational therapist practicing in XX city and XX state. 

I would like to take this opportunity to respond to the Proposed Rule for the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) Prospective Payment System for Fiscal Year 2010.  My principal concern relates to the proposed changes to the so-called "Three Hour Rule" that is used as a guideline for determining a patient's need for a relatively intense level of therapy services.

Under the current Three Hour Rule, the physician and rehabilitation team are given flexibility to determine, on a priority basis, which skilled modalities are appropriate for each patient in the IRF setting.  A number of specific therapies are explicitly identified as "skilled modalities," including but not limited to physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), speech language pathology (ST), and orthotics and prosthetics (O&P).  Until recently, over half the fiscal intermediaries permitted recreational therapy services to be counted as a skilled modality for purposes of qualifying under the Three Hour Rule.   

The proposed changes restrict the current language of the Three Hour Rule by limiting the therapies that may be counted toward the total amount of therapy time to PT, OT, ST and O&P only, leaving no discretion for clinicians to determine the appropriate mix of therapy services for each patient.  The modification, as proposed, excludes recreational therapy, despite the fact that recreational therapy provided in an IRF must be medically necessary and ordered by a physician as part of the patient's treatment plan. 


Elimination of recreational therapy as counting toward the Three Hour Rule will have a negative impact on access to this important therapy and is not reflective of current practices in inpatient rehabilitation.  Furthermore, such an exclusion is not consistent with CMS policy on medical necessity and deference to the judgment of the treating physician. Recreational therapy, when provided by a qualified recreational therapy professional (nationally certified and/or state licensed), has proven to have a statistically positive effect on Functional Independence Measure (FIM) score gains for both stroke and spinal cord injury patients (See Williams, R., et al, 2007 and Hawkins, B., 2009) and is commonly utilized with a variety of other patient populations.

I am therefore requesting that CMS explicitly include recreational therapy in the list of therapy services that may be counted under the Three Hour Rule when ordered by a physician as part of a patient's plan of care and provided by a qualified recreational therapy professional (nationally certified and/or state licensed). This should be reflected in both the regulations and the Medicare Benefits Policy Manual.  Furthermore, I would like to offer my support to the position and request made by Congresswoman Tauscher and Congressman Thompson in their letter to Ms. Charlene M. Frizzera, Acting Administrator for CMS dated May 4, 2009.

Thank you for your consideration of my views.

Sincerely,


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