Just because an organization offers therapy services or has an existing therapy relationship doesn’t mean they’re positioned to offer all necessary therapy services. The differences between Medicare Parts A & B are the reason for this. As a result, a huge opportunity is being missed by a lot of senior living providers.
Many senior living providers have a therapy group as part of their parent organization. However, their services—typically under the label “home health” or “Part A” services—require the patient to be homebound. Residents who are seen by home health companies are typically prescribed therapy services following a return from the hospital or TCU. This type of therapy is often covered up to 100% by Medicare Part A.
What if reimbursable therapy that prevented the fall or hospital visit in the first place was provided? Of after discharging from a home health episode? That’s where Medicare Part B, or integrated outpatient therapy, comes in. While the goal of home health therapy is to stabilize a patient, the integrated outpatient model of therapy offers an entire scope of therapy disciplines and has a more proactive definition of success.
At Odom Rehab we believe therapy should do more than just help seniors get back to baseline—therapy should help them reach an optimal level of independent functioning. This increase in functioning often reduces demands on the nurses and caregivers and is proven to increase the average length of stay within a community.
There is immense opportunity for home health companies and integrated outpatient therapy providers to operate symbiotically within a senior’s housing community. In almost all of the communities in which Odom Rehab operates, a mutual referral relationship hinged on coordination of care and producing high caliber clinical outcomes, has been established. These relationships optimize medicare benefits and lend themselves to residents receiving approximately 80% more therapy than they would through home health services alone.
Odom has an in-house presence at dozens of senior living communities. The residents taking advantage of our services incur very little or no out-of-pocket costs:
- For most residents, 80% of integrated outpatient therapy is covered by Medicare Part B, with the other 20% being out-of-pocket or covered by supplemental insurance.
- 75.1% of clients have no costs because of supplemental insurance.
- The average out-of-pocket cost is a total of $385 over a 3-month period.
There is no financial cost to the senior living provider and the only commitment is allowing us to help you serve the residents of your community.
I am a proud evangelist for the integrated outpatient therapy model as I’ve seen first-hand the difference it makes for our residents and staff of our senior living partners.