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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a new policy for Part A inpatient hospital therapy services that will be effective April 1, 2007 regarding the supervision of speech-language pathology (SLP) students.
SLP students are now considered to be under the direct supervision of a qualified therapist if the speech-language pathologist is present on the same unit or same floor while the patient is treated. The speech-language pathologist must be "immediately available according to the circumstances appropriate to the service rendered," sign all documentation and actively participate in treatment. The current student services policy for Part B outpatient services remains unchanged, that is, requiring the supervising speech-language pathologist to be in the room and totally involved in the evaluation or treatment session.
The same CMS transmittal establishes that coverage policies for outpatient therapy services (Chapter 15 of the Benefit Policy Manual) apply to inpatient hospital settings unless there are specific national inpatient policies that differ. "Inpatient hospitals" are defined as acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and units, long term care hospitals, critical access hospitals, and inpatient psychiatric facilities and units.
The full text of the revisions to the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual can be found on the CMS Web site at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/transmittals/downloads/R65BP.pdf (PDF format). For further information, please contact Mark Kander, ASHA's Director of Health Care Analysis, via e-mail at mkander@asha.org or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 4139.
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