CMS and RT

I follow Jim Sabin’s National Healthcare Organizational Ethics blog. Sabin has been in health care for 40 years. He’s worked as a psychiatrist, medical director, teacher/ researcher, consultant, and he is a leader of the ethics program for a health insurer.

Other recreational therapists may be interested in following his blog, too.

Today (7/7/10) Sabin posted this following comment:

“CMS [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid] is the closest we come to a national voice. It's the crucial player in the health reform process.”

CMS sets the standard.

It reminds me of the process in which the American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA) had worked to get CMS to explicitly list Recreational Therapy as a covered service in the manual. [which, CMS has done. Thanks to the great effort of ATRA advocacy.] R.T. has always been a covered service for three in-patient settings, skilled nursing, rehabilitation, and psychiatric. Some people were not getting services because of agencies were not certain RT services were covered since it wasn’t written in the manual.

What CMS does, others often follow because, as Sabin said, “they are the national voice.”


http://healthcareorganizationalethics.blogspot.com/2010/07/don-berwick-medicare-and-congress.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FfpPe+%28Health+Care+Organizational+Ethics%29