';
Authors Posts by Melissa Dehoff

Melissa Dehoff

907 POSTS 0 COMMENTS
Melissa Dehoff is responsible for all medical rehabilitation and brain injury service issues. Ms. Dehoff attends multiple state-level meetings to advocate on behalf of members on brain injury and rehabilitation issues and is a member of the Department of Health Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Board.

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) will be conducting an event via Zoom that will focus on the recent announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that formally designated brain injury as a chronic health condition. The session, “CMS Chronic Condition Designation — What it Means for You,” will be held on September 24, 2024, at 12:00 pm.

Panelists for this event include:

  • Denver Supinger, BIAA’s Director of Advocacy and Government Relations;
  • Karen Kimsey, former Director of the Department of Medical Assistance Services;
  • Paul Bosworth, brain injury survivor and member of BIAA’s Brain Injury Survivors Council; and
  • Darcy Keith, brain injury survivor and member of BIAA’s Brain Injury Survivors Council.

To participate in the event, please register here.

The meeting documents from the September 4 Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Subcommittee meeting are now available. These documents include the transcript and PowerPoint presentations. You can view them below:

The next LTSS Subcommittee meeting is scheduled for October 2, 2024, from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm via webinar only.

To participate in the meeting, please register here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. If you plan to participate via phone, the dial-in number is: (562) 247-8422; Access Code: 681 281 984#.

Novitas Solutions, the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) for Pennsylvania, will be conducting a three-day Medicare Compliance Matters Virtual Symposium. The symposium is free of charge and will be conducted September 17 – September 19. It will offer 44 webinars that include essential information, updates, and key information on Medicare compliance.

Members who are Medicare-certified providers are encouraged to review the agenda and register for sessions that you would benefit from. The full agenda and registration information is available here.

The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) has announced they will be hosting Transportation Summit 3 (via Zoom) on September 17, 2024, from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm.

The Transportation Summit is an open forum for anyone interested in discussing transportation-related issues in the Community HealthChoices (CHC) Program. There will be staff from various programs on the call, including the managed care organizations (MCO) and transportation brokers, Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP), and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). They will be on the call to listen to feedback and answer questions as they can.

During the webinar, there will be three ways for individuals to ask questions.

  1. You can submit your questions to OLTL in advance by emailing Cortney Alvord.
  2. They can be read during the meeting, where you will use the “Raise Hand” feature during the meeting, be unmuted, and ask your question.
  3. You can type your question into the “Chat” box located on the right side of your screen during the meeting.

To participate in the Transportation Summit, please register using this registration link. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

0 410

WellSky will be offering a one-hour webinar entitled “60 Minutes With the IRF Final Rule” that will focus on the fiscal year (FY) 2025 Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) Final Rule, which was finalized on July 31, 2024. It will go into effect October 1, 2024. As with past final rules, it will have a financial impact on reimbursement for IRFs as well as operational changes from both this final rule and past final rules going into effect. Join long-term care expert Jane Snecinski, FACHE, MRMC, MBA, for a live webinar and learn about:

  • The algorithm for IRF reimbursement (and key factors you should know);
  • The financial impact the rule will have on your IRF reimbursement;
  • Changes to the quality reporting factors; and
  • Changes included in previous years’ IRF final rules that may go into effect October 1, 2024.

The webinar is scheduled for September 18, 2024, from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET. To participate in the webinar, register here.

0 321
Image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will host the next hospital/quality initiative (QI) open door forum call tomorrow, September 10, at 2:00 pm. Agenda topics for this call will include:

  • FY 2025 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System (LTCH PPS) Final Rule CMS-1808-F
  • FY 2025 Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities PPS Final Rule
  • Open Question and Answer

The call will be held via Zoom webinar. Attendees must register in advance for this webinar. Register here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to obtain feedback from both the industry and the public about the potential consolidation of four Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC) jurisdictions into two jurisdictions, as well as to obtain feedback on extending MAC contracts to ten years.

MACs are private health care insurers that have been awarded a geographic jurisdiction to process Medicare Part A and Part B medical claims or Durable Medical Equipment (DME) claims for people with Traditional fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare. Information on the role of MACs can be found here.

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) recently shared information on a live Question & Answer (Q&A) session with the Brain Injury Specialists who manage the National Brain Injury Information Center (NBIIC) on September 13, 2024, at 1:00 pm. Greg Ayotte, CBIST, and Heather Matty, CBIS, will discuss the latest developments in brain injury research, how you can participate in research studies, and more.

If you have a question about brain injury research that you would like to have answered during this event, members are encouraged to submit it here, followed by filling out the form on the page.