Delay the OTA Payment Differential: Join AOTA to Advocate & Make Your Voice Heard
The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule includes finalization of the therapy assistant modifier payment differential, which will reduce Medicare payments made to occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) by 15% in 2022.
Make your voice heard—the time to act is now.
The proposed rule is open for public comments, and every comment letter the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) receives makes a difference. To simplify the process for practitioners, AOTA has created a template letter for you to respond to the proposed rule by telling CMS to delay the OTA payment differential and allow therapy CPT codes to be billed via telehealth under the PHE to be included as Category 3 telehealth codes while we advocate with Congress for telehealth permanence. Comments are due by September 13, and can be submitted at www.regulations.gov. You can access the proposed rule regulation by accessing the Rule document and then clicking the “Comment” button on the top left side of the page and following the directions. Download the four-page Word document below.
AOTA takes action.
In addition to submitting detailed fee schedule comments, AOTA has signed on to a joint association letter to Congress asking for relief from the OTA differential. In the letter, AOTA along with the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), the National Association for the Support of Long Term Care (NASL), and the National Association of Rehabilitation Providers and Agencies (NARA), ask Congress to delay the differential until 2023, exempt rural and underserved areas from the payment reduction, and request general supervision of OTAs in private practice.
AOTA has also signed on to a health care organization coalition letter to Congress urging them to reinstate the 3.75% increase to the fee schedule for 2022 and to identify a permanent solution to annual health care cuts by correcting the flawed budget neutrality policy.