As I write this report I am recuper...

As I write this report I am recuperating from the overload of of the present day information gathered at the outstanding AACVPR National meeting held in Charlotte, North Carolina. This meeting always provides me with the latest and greatest information in cardiac and pulmonary rehab, reimbursement issues, and practice issues. Our acknowledge Rebecca Crouch provided a great presentation onward the Physical Therapist in the Pulmonary Rehab setting; Dennis Sobush has been selecteded to the Cardiovascular and Pulmonary PT position upon the Board of Directors; and Sandy Cassady has taken a position onward the Publications Committee. Joanne Watchie was meeting with exhibitors to identify potential sponsors, and Larry Cahalin was discussing research with everyone unruffled our own President, Dianne Jewell, was seen in all the education sessions, cocktail parties, etc when she was suppos to be putting the finishing touches in succession her dissertation!!! What a busy assemblage of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary PTs!

I'd like to update you upon some practice issues. I was invited to attend the APTAs State rule Affairs Forum in Louisville, Kentucky in September and quick in emergencies information on exercise physiologists. The forum provided a chance for representatives from states and sections to discuss general issues facing physical therapists. My character was to explain the national organizations, the certifications, and the educational preparation of exercise physiologists. This provided for great sharing of information and hopefully gave these state representatives an increased understanding of a arrange of individuals who are working within various clinical situations. Many physical therapists are confused with the numerous certification processe that exist for exercise physiologists, as well as the different organizations that show exercise physiologists. To learn more about the various certifications you can find the American corporation of Sports Medicine at www.acsm.org and learn about their health and fitness tract, the clinical tract, and the modern registry for clinical exercise physiologists. Read the different requirements for sitting for the different certifications at this site, as well. The ACSM is the organization that has been in existence for the longest time, and has quite a history of certification programs, etc The American Society of Exercise Physiologists (ASEP), a relatively just discovered organization, has developed their have certification and can be researched at www.asep.org. They proffer the ECP certification (Exercise Clinical Physiologist... brand new) Lastly, the American Council onward Fitness (ACE) has a certification program, mainly for personal fitness trainers. Their website with certification criteria is lay the foundation of at www.acefitness.org.

Reimbursement and legislative issues were quite the discussion at the AACVPR meeting. Let's start with cardiac rehab. generally CMS is reviewing the physician supervision issue and rumors report that the CM is reviewing the practices, records, and physician situation in a surpassingly large hospital in Milwaukee, with plans to do the same in a small in number other centers across the land There have not been any changes to the physician supervision issue nationally, however, and any program that has questions should ask their state intermediary for an interpretation (for example, can an ER physician be the 'supervising physician?' etc) Another issue that is providing chances of discussion is regarding the mixing of phase II and phase III.... Should they be separate, or can you exercise these individuals at the same time. Again, you should contact your state intermediary regarding this question, and ask for their interpretation. Many of us at the AACVPR meeting attended a presentation from 2 intermediaries (different states) and learned these 2 states interpret these 2 issues completely different!

There is still the expectancy that new diagnoses will be added to Medicare's short list, if it be not that when that decision will be made is a guessing game. In the meantime, the AACVPR has been asked to submit a rewrite of the 35-25 document. The sixth revision of this document came across my email about a month ago. I forwarded a fac-simile to the APTA Government Affairs Department and they provided near assistance with terminology. Our allude toed changes were given back to the AACVPR, and have been adopted. This revision will be forwarded back to CM and hopefully adopted at CMS in the near events to come

Regarding pulmonary rehabilitation, modern G codes were introduced in April to provide mechanisms to bill for pulmonary rehab services provided by means of respiratory therapists and nurses, unless apparently have not been readily used in each state. Again, individuals are attract favor toed to refer to their Local Medicare Review Policy (LMRP) if the same exists for your state, to identify appropriate diagnoses, digests to use, and any admission/discharge criteria for patients in pulmonary rehab programs. These have been updated to include the G digests However, many states do not have an LMRP (such as Georgia) and therefore, pulmonary rehab must be billed either by the agency of the physical therapy department, if they are the singles providing services, or through another department with the RT and feeds billing for their services using the novel G codes. Apparently CMS is reviewing 'pulmonary rehab' across the nation. There has been not been any determination, further regarding the 'bundling' of services for pulmonary rehab in general, as they did with cardiac rehab, or if it will remain 'as is' and billed by means of service.