Welcome to the HealthPRO Heritage Blog

We’re excited to announce a new name for our Senior Living health & wellness division – RISE Senior Living by HealthPRO Heritage. Our new name best represents the work we’ve done for over a decade to help seniors live their best lives, whether they live in independent or assisted living, memory care communities, or CCRCs. 

Kelly M. Cooney, M.A. CCC-SLP, CHC and Vice President of Compliance and Training for Therapy Specialists, a HealthPRO Heritage company, was recently re-elected for a second 2-year term as President of the National Association of Rehabilitation Providers and Agencies.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Home Health 2022 proposed rule on Monday, June 28, 2021. We're breaking down the details, enjoying the fireworks (including a slight increase in reimbursement!), and talking future of home health.

Most Notable Elements of the Proposed Rule

CMS is proposing a $310M increase in Home Health payments in 2022, which equates to an increase in payment by 1.8%! This proposed increase adjusts the 30-day payment base rate from $1901.12 to $2012.43. However, despite quite a bit of controversy and advocacy efforts to have the behavioral adjustments that were implemented in 2020 with the conversion to PDGM modified, they remain intact at a 4.36%.

Has your organization considered a change in your therapy services partner but is hesitant about taking the steps to do so? Or are you overwhelmed by the worry of a disruptive transitional process? First, acknowledge the challenges. Then, overcome them! Five common concerns are called out below, along with solutions for operators wanting to make important, strategic changes for the future of their therapy department. 

Speech therapy and ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) and are both recommended and effective therapies for treating children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Often times the therapies are complementary with each other and many children diagnosed with Autism receive services from both types of providers.

HealthPRO Pediatrics has been providing therapy services for children of all ages for 35+ years. In 2020, our partnership with Alternatives ABA – a multi-specialty clinical practice specializing in the treatment of autism spectrum disorder – took our offerings to another level by adding Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to our roster.

Recently, AOTA and APTA have released a first-of-its-kind joint study “Therapy Outcomes in Post-Acute Care Settings” (TOPS) that demonstrates a correlation between functional physical & occupational therapy interventions & positive outcomes, including increased strength, endurance, independence, balance and improved functional cognition in patients across post-acute care settings.   

Occupational therapy (OT) in early intervention (EI) can help families with children (birth to three years) with developmental delays (or at risk for developmental delays) improve motor, social, sensory processing, play, and cognitive skills. Occupational therapists, specifically, are trained in activity analysis (the way in which we take apart activities and routines and simplify them down to their most basic skill) which allows us to pinpoint the specific skillsets needed of the child and individualize our treatment plans for each child and family. Because no child is exactly the same and no family is the same, what works for one family will not work for another.

New to school-based occupational therapy (OT)?

Are you a new grad and just received a position as an OT/OTA in the schools?

Or perhaps you are curious what school-based OT looks like.

Whatever your interest, this will be your pediatric primer for everything you need to know about occupational therapy in the schools...