Medicare Finalizes 15% Cut For Outpatient Physical & Occupational Therapy Provided By Assistants

Starting January 1, 2022, the Medicare program will implement a 15% reimbursement cut to Part B payments for outpatient occupational therapy services and outpatient physical therapy services that are provided, in whole or in part, by an appropriately supervised occupational therapy assistant (OTA) or a physical therapist assistant (PTA). Services provided by OTAs and PTAs will be billed using new modifiers (CQ and CO).

The new modifiers were released in the Medicare outpatient Physician Fee Schedule for calendar year 2022. A service is defined as having ben provided by an OTA or PTA if the service lasts longer than 15 . . .