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APTA PA 2024 Payment and Regulatory Update Agenda

The courses will be held from 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | Breakfast and lunch will be provided for all attendees.

Where & When

• April 10, 2024:
  Community College of Allegheny County
  595 Beatty Road, Monroeville, PA, 15146 
• April 25, 2024: 
  Montgomery County Community College, Bluebell
  340 Dekalb Pike, Bluebell, PA 19422
• May 7, 2024:
  Central Penn College
  600 Valley Road, Summerdale, PA 17093

About the Course

The primary focus of this seminar is to provide an update on outpatient physical therapy services provided in various settings: hospitals, private practice, CORFs, rehab agencies and skilled nursing facilities. This seminar will dive into payment implications of CMS’ Merit-Based Incentive Payment System and the Quality Payment Program as well as the future of Hybrid Therapy treatment and case management models.

Who should attend:

Physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, PT facility/clinic managers, PT compliance officers, and PT payment/reimbursement personnel employed by/consulting with PT facilities/clinics interested in remaining up to date with changes in payment and compliance with payer and regulatory requirements in the delivery of physical therapy services are invited to register.

About the Speakers:  

Thomas M (Tom) Howell, PT, MPT is the Payment Specialist for APTA-PA and Chair of the APTA-PA Payment Committee. Tom is from Philadelphia and graduated from Hahnemann (Drexel) but then spent 25 years out West returning to PA in 2017. He has been an APTA member since 1988 and held the position of Payment Specialist with the Idaho Physical Therapy Association. Tom is past President of the IPTA and served as the IPTA Federal Affairs Liaison. He is a member of the APTA HPA the Catalyst section and a former member of the HPA Bylaws committee. He was a private practice owner for 12 years out West and currently works as a contract PT in outpatient and home health.

Deborah Alexander, CHC, CHPC, PMP, DPT, MED, ATC, CSCS is a Payment Specialist for APTA-PA and a member of the APTA-PA Payment Committee.  Deb received her physical therapy training from Thomas Jefferson University, in 1985, Master of Education in Sports Medicine and Athletic Training from Temple in 1991, and her Doctorate in PT from Simmons in 2006.  Deb has 20 years of clinical experience in OPT orthopedics and private practice, acute care, and skilled nursing.  Over the past 15 years, Deb has worked as a compliance consultant providing consultative services related to healthcare compliance, compliance product development, HIPAA compliance, exclusions monitoring, coding and billing education and training, and authoring compliance, HIPAA, and OSHA policy and procedure manuals.  Deb currently serves as a Senior Consultant with LW-Consulting, Inc., providing compliance consultation and audit services to acute and post-acute care providers to ensure skill service provision, the reasonableness of the services, and medical necessity, conducting provider and payer audits under attorney privilege or in support of corporate integrity agreements, conducting compliance program assessments and gap analyses, and audits involving overpayment calculations and extrapolation.  Deb previously was the CEO of PT Compliance Group.  Deb is a member of the APTA, HealthCare Compliance Association, and Project Management Institute. 

Nuket Curran, PT, DPT, CHC is a Payment Specialist for the APTA-PA, member of the APTA-PA Payment Committee and currently serves as the SWD Chair for the APTA-PA. She is certified in Healthcare Compliance and works for US Physical Therapy as the National Director of Clinical Services and Compliance. Nuket has worked in compliance departments both as director and compliance officer for over 15 years. She owned two small outpatient PT practices in the greater Pittsburgh area and in Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK) providing orthopedic Part B services and more recently a compliance consulting business. She serves as an adjunct lecturer at Chatham and Duquesne University teaching compliance and business topics to students. Nuket completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh and completed her PT degree at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, UK. She attended Utica College to complete her transitional Doctorate in Physical Therapy where she also served as a faculty member.

Review the tentative agenda below. The final agenda will be sent to all registrants before the webinar(s).

Course Agenda
(Important: Time frames are subject to change to allow inclusion of issues that develop closer to the Updates.)

8:00 am - 8:30 am: Breakfast and check-in

8:30 am - 10:15 am: Commercial payer updates

• Payment Committee introduction
• Trends in Commercial Payers and OP PT
• Updates on Major Payors
• PA AUTO and PA Workers Compensation Update

10:15 am - 10:30 am: Beverage Break

10:30 am - 12:00 pm: State Legislative Update and Federal Payer Updates (Part 1)

• Legislative Update
• New CMS Rules – HH, SNF
• Lymphedema codes
• Medicare Advantage Final Rule
• Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule – Part One

• Medicare Cuts and Partial Fix
• KX modifier
• Telehealth

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm: Lunch/Roundtable Discussions by Practice Setting
Enjoy lunch but we encourage you to discuss topics of interest: What are your biggest payment headaches? Are you joining or disengaging from commercial or worker’s comp networks? Are you using an EMR that’s working well for you? What innovative methods are you using to address the commercial payor network authorization requirements while easing the administrative burden?  Join colleagues to discuss issues important to you!

1:00 - 1:45 pm: Federal Updates (continued)

• Change Healthcare
• Documentation and compliance - reminders
• PTA and Supervision – Medicare, Commercial Payer, and Licensure
• Credentialing – Federal
• 2024 CPT Code Updates
  • Misvalued codes
  • New Caregiver Training and Low-Level Laser

• DOD – Direct Access

1:45 pm - 2:30 pm: Value Based Care Models

• Future Payment Implications with MIPs, MVP, and QPP

2:30 pm - 2:45 pm: Break

2:45 pm - 3:45 pm: Hybrid Treatment and Payment Model Considerations

• Remote Therapeutic monitoring (RTM)
• Maintenance Therapy
• Consumer Influences
• Practice Expansion Opportunities
• Regulations Impacting Hybrid Case Management Models

3:45 pm - 4:00 pm: Payment and Practice Burning Questions

4 pm - 4:30 pm

• Q &A