[Dysphagia] Medicare holidays

[Casper219 at aol.com (Casper219@aol.com)]

There is no such thing as a "Medicare holiday" according to CMS.  Just as 
there is no such thing as a "Medicare week".  Your facility / company should 
probably have policies for how to handle holiday coverage.  In the scenario you 
presented where Thanksgiving and the day after are just time "off" for the 
therapist, that would present a risk for the facility in terms of anyone in an 
assessment period for Medicare, and in general if there were an audit (like DAVE 
or post payment review) the entire stay for that patient could be jeopardized. 
My company's policy is that there can never be 3 consecutive days without 
treatment for those who have orders 5 days per week.  This year while the 
Christmas holiday is on a Saturday, the official holiday at the office is Friday.  
However, services will need to be provided by therapy either Friday, Saturday, 
or Sunday.  If we vary from the order for 5 times per week we have to document 
why - and that there was no adverse outcome.  As another person suggested, we 
might increase the minutes on the other days that week, but then I'd have to 
question why those patients can't tolerate more treatment all the time ... oh I 
digress.
Bottom line is you have to follow your company's policies for handling the 
holidays - the policies are what the surveyors will be looking at.
Good luck.
Mary