(Medicare Benefit Policy Manual)

 Therapy is not required to effect improvement or restoration of function where a patient suffers a transient or easily reversible loss of function (such as temporary weakness following surgery) which could reasonably be expected to improve spontaneously as the patient gradually resumes normal activities.  Therapy in such cases is not considered reasonable and necessary to treat the patients illness or injury, under this condition.  However, if the criteria for maintenance therapy described in (3) below is met, therapy could be covered under that condition.  2.  The patients clinical condition requires the specialized skills, knowledge, and judgment of a qualified therapist to establish or design a maintenance program, related to the patients illness or injury, in order to ensure the safety of the patient an d the effectiveness of the program, to the extent provided by regulation,   For patients receiving rehabilitative/restorative therapy services, if the specialized skills, knowledge, and judgment of a qualified therapist are required to develop a maintenance program, the expectation is that the development of that maintenance progr am would occur during the last visit(s) for rehabilitative/restorative treatment.  The goals of a maintenance program would be to maintain the patients current functional status or to prevent or slow further deterioration.    Necessary periodic reevaluations by a qualified therapist of the beneficiary and maintenance program are covered if the specialized skills, knowledge, and judgment of a qualified therapist are required.    Where a maintenance program is not established until after the rehabilitative/restorative therapy program has been completed, or where there was no rehabilitative/restorative therapy program, and the specialized skills, knowledge, and judgment of a qualifi ed therapist are required to develop a maintenance program, such services would be considered reasonable and necessary for the treatment of the patients condition in order to ensure the effectiveness of the treatment goals and ensure medical safety.  When  the development of a maintenance program could not be accomplished during the last visits(s) of rehabilitative/restorative treatment, the therapist must document why the maintenance program could not be developed during those last rehabilitative/restorative treatment visit(s).    When designing or establishing a maintenance program, the qualified therapist must teach the patient or the patient's family or caregivers necessary techniques, exercises or precautions as necessary to treat the illness or injury.  The instruction of the beneficiary or appropriate caregiver by a qualified therapist regarding a maintenance program is covered if the specialized skills, knowledge, and judgment of a qualified therapist are required.  However, visits made by skilled therapists to a patient's home solely to train other HHA staff (e.g., home health aides) are not billable as visits since the HHA is responsible for ensuring that its staff is properly trained to perform any service it furnishes.  The cost of a skilled therapist's visit for the purpose of training HHA staff is an administrative cost to the agency.   3. The skills of a qualified therapist or by a qualified therapist assistant under the supervision of a qualified therapist are needed to perform maintenance therapy:    Coverage of therapy services to perform a maintenance program is not determined solely on the presence or absence of a beneficiarys potential for improvement from the therapy, but rather on the beneficiarys need for skilled care.  Assuming all other elig ibility and coverage requirements are met, skilled therapy services are covered when an individualized assessment of the patients clinical condition demonstrates that the specialized judgment, knowledge, and skills of a qualified therapist or by a qualifi ed therapist assistant under the supervision of a qualified therapist (skilled care) are necessary for the performance of a safe and effective maintenance program.  Such a maintenance program to maintain the patients current condition or to prevent or s low further deterioration is covered so long as the beneficiary requires skilled care for the safe and effective performance of the program.  When, however, the individualized assessment does not demonstrate such a necessity for skilled care, including whe n the performance of a maintenance program does not require the skills of a therapist or by a qualified therapist assistant under the supervision of a qualified therapist because it could safely and effectively be accomplished by the patient or with the as sistance of non -therapists, including unskilled caregivers, such maintenance services will not be covered.   Further, under the standard set forth in the previous paragraph, skilled care is necessary for the performance of a safe and effective maintenance program only when (a) the particular patients special medical complications require the skills of a qualifie d therapist or by a qualified therapist assistant under the supervision of a qualified therapist to perform a therapy service that would otherwise be considered non- skilled; or (b) the needed therapy procedures are of such complexity that the skills of a qualified therapist are required to perform the procedure.   e. The amount, frequency, and duration of the services must be reasonable.   As is outlined in home health regulations, as part of the home health agency (HHA) Conditions of Participation (CoPs), the clinical record of the patient must contain progress and clinical notes.  Additionally, in Pub. 100- 04, Medicare Claims Processing Ma nual, Chapter 10; Home Health Agency Billing, instructions specify that for each claim, HHAs are required to report all services provided to the beneficiary during each 30- day period, this includes reporting each visit in line -item detail.  As such, it i s expected that the home health records for every visit will reflect the need for the skilled medical care provided.  These clinical notes are also expected to provide important communication among all members of the home care team regarding the development, course and outcomes of the skilled observations, assessments, treatment and training performed.  Taken as a whole then, the clinical notes are expected to tell the story of the patients achievement towards his/her goals as outli ned in the Plan of Care.  In this way, the notes will serve to demonstrate why a skilled service is needed.   Therefore the home health clinical notes must document as appropriate:    the history and physical exam pertinent to the days visit , (including the response or changes in behavior to previously administered skilled services) and   the skilled services applied on the current visit, and   the patient/caregivers immediate response to the skilled services provided, and   the plan for the next visit based on the rationale of prior results.   Clinical notes should be written such that they adequately describe the reaction of a patient to his/her skilled care.  Clinical notes should also provide a clear picture of the treatment, as well as next steps to be taken.  Vague or subjective descripti ons of the patients care should not be used.  For example terminology such as the following would not adequately describe the need for skilled care:    Patient tolerated treatment well  Caregiver instructed in medication management   Continue with POC   Objective measurements of physical outcomes of treatment should be provided and/or a clear description of the changed behaviors due to education programs should be recorded in order that all concerned can follow the results of the applied services.  When the skilled service is being provided to either maintain the patients condition or prevent or slow further deterioration, the clinical notes must also describe:    A detailed rationale that explains the need for the skilled service in light of the patients overall medical condition and experiences,   the complexity of the service to be performed, and    any other pertinent characteristics of the beneficiary or home.   40.2.2 - Application of the Principles to Physical Therapy Services  (Rev. 179, Issued: 01- 14-14, Effective: 01 -07-14, Implementation: 01- 07-14)  The following discussion of skilled physical therapy services applies the principles in 40.2 .1 to specific physical therapy services about which questions are most frequently raised.   A.  Assessment   Assuming all other eligibility and coverage requirements have been met, the skills of a physical therapist to assess and periodically reassess a patient's rehabilitation needs and potential or to develop and/or implement a physical therapy program are cove red when they are reasonable and necessary because of the patient's condition.  Skilled rehabilitation services concurrent with the management of a patient's care plan include objective tests and measurements such as, but not limited to, range of motion, strength, balance, coordination, endurance, or functional ability.  As described in section 40.2.1(b), at defined points during a course of therapy, the qualified physical therapist (instead of an assistant) must perform the ordered therapy service visit, assess the patients function using a method which allows for object ive measurement of function and comparison of successive measurements, and document the results of the assessments, corresponding measurements, and effectiveness of the therapy in the patients clinical record.  Refer to 40.2.1(b) for specific timing and documentation requirements associated with these requirements.   B.  Therapeutic Exercises   Therapeutic exercises, which require the skills of a qualified physical therapist to ensure the safety of the beneficiary and the effectiveness of the treatment constitute skilled physical therapy, when the criteria in 40.2.1(d) above are met.  C.  Gait Training   Gait evaluation and training furnished to a patient whose ability to walk has been impaired by neurological, muscular or skeletal abnormality require the skills of a qualified physical therapist and constitute skilled physical therapy and are considered reasonable and necessary if they can be expected to materially improve or maintain the patient's ability to walk or prevent or slow further deterioration of the patients ability to walk.  Gait evaluation and training which is furnished to a patient whose ab ility to walk has been impaired by a condition other than a neurological, muscular, or skeletal abnormality would nevertheless be covered where physical therapy is reasonable and necessary to restore or maintain function or to prevent or slow further deterioration. Refer to 40.2.1(d)(1) for the reasonable and necessary coverage criteria associated with restoring patient function.  EXAMPLE 1:   A physician has ordered gait evaluation and training for a patient whose gait has been materially impaired by scar tissue resulting from burns.  Physical therapy services to evaluate the beneficiary's gait, establish a gait training program, and provide the skilled services necessary to implement the program would be covered. The patients response to therapy must be documented.  At appropriate intervals (see above), the qualified therapist must assess the patient with objective measurements of function.   EXAMPLE 2:   A patient who has had a total hip replacement is ambulatory but demonstrates weakness and is unable to climb stairs safely.  Physical therapy would be reasonable and necessary to teach the patient to climb and descend stairs safely.  Once the patient has reached the goal of climbing and descending stairs safely, additional therapy services are no longer required, and thus would not be covered.  EXAMPLE 3:   A patient who has received gait training has reached their maximum restoration potential, and the physical therapist is teaching the patient and family how to safely perform the activities that are a part of the maintenance program.  The visits by the physical therapist to demonstrate and teach the activities (which by themselves do not require the skills of a therapist) would be covered since they are needed to establish the program (refer to 40.2.1(d)(2)).  The patients and caregivers understanding and implementation of the maintenance program must be documented.  After the establishment of the maintenance program, any further visits would need to document why the skilled services of a physical therapist are still required.   D.  Range of Motion  Only a qualified physical therapist may perform range of motion tests and, therefore, such tests are skilled physical therapy.   Range of motion exercises constitute skilled physical therapy only if they are part of an active treatment for a specific disease state, illness, or injury that has resulted in a loss or restriction of mobility (as evidenced by physical therapy notes showing the degree of motion lost and the degree to be restored).  Unskilled individuals may provide range of motion exercises unrelated to the restoration of a specific loss of function often safely and effectively.  Passive exercises to maintain range of moti on in paralyzed extremities that can be carried out by unskilled persons do not constitute skilled physical therapy.  However, if the criteria in 40.2.1(d)(3) are met, where there is clear documentation that, because of special medical complications (e.g., susceptible to pathological bone fractures), the skills of a therapist are needed to provide services which ordinarily do not need the skills of a therapist, and then the services would be covered.  E.  Maintenance Therapy   Where services that are required to maintain the patients current function or to prevent or slow further deterioration are of such complexity and sophistication that the skills of a qualified therapist are required to perform the procedure safely and effectively, the services would be covered physical therapy services.  Further, where the particular patients special medical complications require the skills of a qualified therapist to perform a therapy service safely and effectively that would otherwise be considered unskilled, such services would be covered physical therapy services.  Refer to 40.2.1(d)(3).   EXAMPLE 4:   Where there is an unhealed, unstable fracture that requires regular exercise to maintain function until the fracture heals, the skills of a physical therapist would be needed to ensure that the fractured extremity is maintained in proper position and alignment during maintenance range of motion exercises.   EXAMPLE 5:   A Parkinson's patient or a patient with rheumatoid arthritis who has not been under a restorative physical therapy program may require the services of a physical therapist to determine what type of exercises are required to maintain the patient's present l evel of function or to prevent or slow further deterioration.  The initial evaluation of the patient's needs, the designing of a maintenance program appropriate to the patients capacity and tolerance and to the treatment objectives of the physician, the instruction of the patient, family or caregivers to carry out the program safely and effectively, and such reevaluations as may be required by the patient's condition, would constitute skilled physical therapy.  Each component of this process must be documented in the home health record.