Appeal type: Inpatient Hospital
Decision: Unfavorable

The rules say that plans must pay for a medical service or item if regular Medicare would pay for it in this case. 
You can find this rule at 42 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Section 422.101. 
 
The rules say that Medicare will pay for an IRF admission when the services are reasonable and medically 
necessary. The patient must require an intensive and coordinated interdisciplinary approach to providing 
rehabilitation. The patient must need active and ongoing treatment by more than one therapy discipline. One of 
the therapies must be physical therapy or occupational therapy. The patient must need and be expected to 
actively participate in and to benefit from an intensive rehabilitation therapy program. This intensive 
rehabilitation therapy program generally consists of at least three hours of therapy per day at least five days per 
week. The patient does not need to be expected to achieve complete independence in self-care nor be expected 
to return to his or her prior level of functioning. The patient must need supervision by a rehabilitation 
physician. The physician must see the patient at least three days per week throughout the stay. You can find 
these rules in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Internet Only Manual, Medicare Benefit Policy 
Manual, Chapter 1, Sections 110.2 and 110.2.5 and at 42 CFR Section 412.622. 
 
If you want to read these Medicare rules, you can go to this website www.medicareappeal.com. 
 
The Plan contract says that the Plan covers items and services in accordance with Medicare rules.
We decided that the Plan does not have to pre-approve acute inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) admission 
and services. 
 
You asked the Plan to pre-approve IRF care. You say that the requested admission to an IRF is medically 
necessary. The Plan denied your request. The Plan says the enrollee does not meet criteria for IRF admission. 
 
The Plan must follow Medicare rules. The rules say that IRF admission is covered only when it is medically 
reasonable and necessary as described in the Medicare rules section. 
 
We asked our physician reviewer to carefully review the case file and apply the relevant Medicare rules to 
determine if the Plan was correct in denying the request to pre-approve IRF care. Our reviewer says that the 
enrollee does not meet criteria for IRF admission. Our physician reviewer found the complexity of the 
enrollee's nursing, medical and rehabilitation needs does not require an acute hospital inpatient stay with an 
interdisciplinary approach to rehabilitation care. The enrollee was admitted for chest pain and bilateral leg weakness and was transferred to skilled nursing on 7/31/21. Medical problems are stable. There are no complex 
nursing or rehabilitation needs.  
 
The enrollee does not require treatment by multiple therapies, including either physical therapy or occupational 
therapy, in an intensive rehabilitation therapy program. While the documentation does support a need for 
physical and/or occupational therapy, there is no documented need for a intensive, multi-disciplinary 
rehabilitation program. 
 
We looked at this physician's review, the file, and Medicare rules. Based on this information, we decided that 
Medicare rules for coverage of IRF care have not been met. Therefore, we decided that the Plan does not have 
to pre-approve acute inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) admission and services.