In 2020, The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to make reimbursement cuts to several professions, including a 9% cut to occupational and physical therapy services, to offset the increase in reimbursement to primary care physicians.
These cuts would pose financial problems for outpatient OT and PT services, possibly resulting in clinics closing their doors while children and adults lose access to the services they need.
The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) has created resources to help advocate against these cuts*. I have broken down the steps to use them below.
Step 1: Write Your Representative
AOTA has provided an easy to use template to create a form letter and send it to your senators and congressional representatives. This takes about two minutes to fill out and send. You can find it here.
Step 2: Write CMS
AOTA has also created a form letter that is easy to alter and send to CMS to let them know you oppose the planned 9% cut to OT and PT services. This takes about five minutes to fill out and send. CMS is accepting responses until October 5th. The form letter can be downloaded by:
- Clicking here
- Scrolling to the bottom of the page
- Clicking the Template Letter button.
Once you have downloaded and personalized the letter, you can send it to CMS by:
- Clicking here
- Clicking the Comment Now button on the top right side of the screen
- Provide a comment in the comment box
- Attach the letter before sending
I would suggest changing the letter to a PDF before sending.
Thank you for taking time to raise awareness to this important issue!
*Individuals who are not occupational therapists may need to alter the language in the template and letter to reflect this.
