Hello Chuck: THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! What you say, makes perfect sense. I didn't even think about the direct access loop. Fortunately, Florida has direct access.
Regarding WHY a DME would send a referral, this is a portion of my private practice. While it has slowed down, at one point, I was doing several w/c evals/week based solely on referrals from DME's The DME's get walk-in customers all day long and they use me (or any other Medicare therapist) to evaluate these clients. Sometimes, DME's get the referrals from doctors themselves, but often, it just the DME trying to sell equipment. Of course, the doctor must still sign the CMN, but for me, almost 100% of my w/c evals are referrals from DME's. Are you surprised by this???? Ron ----- Original Message ----- From: Charles Willmarth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subj: [OTlist] Stand-alone Wheelchair Evals CW> Ron, CW> I spoke with Tara Alexandar in our reimbursement department about your CW> question: CW> My answer to this would be that if the therapist resides in a state CW> where they have direct access, then the therapist can conduct an CW> evaluation and provide a written report to the person without CW> jeopardizing their licensure or certification status. If they reside CW> in CW> a state that requires them to obtain a referral or script before any CW> services are rendered, then they should not be performing an CW> evaluation CW> for DME or any service without following proper protocols. I won't CW> even CW> get into to the distinction between an assessment and an evaluation. CW> An CW> assessment being a shorter and informal type of evaluation (ex. quick CW> checks performed at a mall or somewhere, no professional report CW> necessarily needed). My questions is why would a DME supplier be CW> asking CW> for a therapist to perform an evaluation for a wheelchair instead of CW> the CW> provider? >>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 7/19/2005 12:21:25 PM >>> CW> Does anyone receive requests from DME's to perform power w/c evals on CW> a CW> patients that are not currently receiving therapy? How do you CW> handle CW> these situations?. For example, do you call the doctor's office CW> and CW> request a script prior to doing the eval? Do you do the eval without CW> a CW> script and just send the patient's doctor a copy of the eval? CW> To me, this seems to be a gray area. Medicare has all but mandated CW> a CW> therapy evaluation for power wheelchairs, but I can not find CW> any CW> documentation clearly delineating the procedural aspects of a CW> one-time CW> therapy evaluation for a power wheelchair. CW> Thanks, CW> Ron C. CW> -- CW> Unsubscribe? CW> [EMAIL PROTECTED] CW> Change options? CW> www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com CW> Archive? CW> www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] CW> Help? CW> [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Unsubscribe? [EMAIL PROTECTED] Change options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Help? [EMAIL PROTECTED]
