Sorry for the lack of posting....blame the Government

My "day job" is that of an MDS Coordinator. I do reports for Medicare patients at an inpatient skilled Rehab facility.

Last week, a much-anticipated, massive change in the Medicare/Medicaid reporting/billing/payment process was implemented, called MDS 3.0.

This change will do several things;

it will make the process much, much more tedious for folks like me. What was once 8 pages of information we collect, collate, and send to CMS (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services) turned into over 50 pages, overnight.
And these reports have to be done on day 5, day 14, 30, 60, 90, etc., of the inpatient stay. For each patient.

It increases the likelihood of errors, so that CMS can deny payment.

It changes the payment structure, effectively paying facilities less for the services they render, while at the same time mandating the same amount of Rehab/Nursing care be provided.

The new system was dramatically changed by Obamacare, by the way-implementation was supposed to be 10/1/2009, but they delayed it so they could add to the new regs.

Bottom line;


Privately owned companies like mine will have to scramble harder to be able to recoup for the services we provide.
Physical/Occupational/Speech Therapists are all PhD level Practitioners, and they aren't cheap, and are in extremely high demand. Their services aren't cheap. But the Gov't sure is.

They have mandated that CMS save $500 Billion in Medicare/Medicaid "fraud".
How will they do that?
By cutting payments like I have briefly described, and by ultimately beginning to deny services to those in need.
It's in the Medicare/Medicaid portion of the Obamacare legislation.

Soon, they will begin to cut payments until facilities have no choice but to cut staff.

Get ready, folks. The Government wants a "single-payor" (Government) healthcare--this is but one of the ways they are going to go about getting it.

We are SO screwed...........................