Documentation Essentials – Proving Medical Necessity in Therapy Documentation

Course Description

Today’s healthcare reimbursement process presents challenges to both physical therapists & occupational therapists.  The key to reimbursement is ensuring that you and your organization develop quality documentation procedures.  In “Documentation Essentials” you will learn from an experienced documentation reviewer how to apply the words “reasonable” and “necessary” in your assessments and progress reports to ensure that your organization’s billable work is reimbursed timely and fully.  As a physical therapist or occupational therapist you work too hard to achieve positive patient outcomes to not be reimbursed for the services that you provide. This course will provide you with necessary tools to help prevent denials and, if necessary, mount a successful appeals effort.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:

1)  Understand the words “reasonable” and “necessary.”

2)  Differentiate between functional deficits and underlying impairments, with key points to document for each.

3)  Write well documented & defensible assessments, whether at the time of evaluation or as a part of ongoing progress reports.

4)  Demonstrate reasonable progress on notes/reports.

5)  Identify & choose appropriate CPT codes.

6)  Provide appropriate analysis that demonstrates the bridge between reasonable and necessary.

7)  Justify & document the complexity of your PT or OT skills in such a manner that supports the necessity of your treatment plans.

8)  Understand what constitutes well documented daily notes.

• Prerequisites

  None

• Educational Level

  Basic

• Other

  Satisfactory completion of this course will require the participant to respond to polling questions throughout the webinar.