This is the ARCHIVE SITE - IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTAbout ATRA
Membership
Leadership
Chapter Affiliates
Continuing Education
Bookstore
Treatment Network
Vendors
Members Only
This year has been extremely positive for recreational therapy, and thanks to the efforts of the ATRA leadership team, positive comments about recreational therapy services have appeared in a wide range of rehabilitation industry magazines, e-mail groups and professional journals. By far the biggest story has been the Medicare and Recreational Therapy story about the recent CMS clarification. Thus far, ATRA members have reported seeing positive comments about recreational therapy in; AMA News (9/03 issue), The Eli report, PPS Alert for Inpatient Rehab, (September 2003), The Rehab Talk listserve, and The CARF Board of Trustees and the full CARF Surveyor list serve.
ATRA sent press releases to a variety of other Rehabilitation industry sources as well, including Rehab Management Magazine, Advance for Directors in Rehab, and Opus Communications. The release was posted internally on the ATRA website and was shared with all of the current ATRA leadership as well as each of the ATRA chapters across the country. ATRA’s national office has been receiving numerous calls from all across the country asking about the information.
ATRA’s Coverage and Reimbursement team reported that the August 2003 issue of PPS Alert newsletter had an article "Meeting the 3-hour Rule". Quoted by Angie Phillips, PT, president and chief executive officer of Images, a consulting firm in Amarillo, TX, "Medicare will accept PT, OT, and speech/language therapy, as well as orthotic and prosthetic training toward the three-hour requirement. Under certain conditions, you may also count therapeutic recreation when it's appropriate to the patient's condition, goal-directed, and supports the integrated plan of care."
As ATRA’s public policy and coverage and reimbursement teams continue to work diligently to make advances for the profession, ATRA has been working hard to get the word out to the rest of our rehab colleagues.
Rehabilitation isn’t the only area that
has received some great press; ATRA’s Dementia Practice
Guidelines were featured in Nursing Homes Magazine, and the
AMA Health Professions E-Letter (6/4/2003). In addition, ATRA
was featured on American Society on Aging's website and ATRA
was approached by the Alzheimer's Care Quarterly Journal regarding
the Dementia Practice guidelines.
The Cochrane Library contacted past ATRA Board member Dr.
Linda Buettner to include the ATRF funded Falls study on their
website.
ATRA has been asked by AMA’s Health Professions Network to be featured as one of next year’s ‘Occupation of the Month’. The ATRA Marketing team will be working with the Health Professions Network to provide information.
Make sure to check the ATRA website regularly
to keep up with all the latest news about ATRA and recreational
therapy.