PDPM Q & A: Your Questions Answered!

The Patient Driven Payment System (PDPM) for occupational therapy practitioners in SNFs is a hot topic these days. I get questions about what does PDPM mean for therapy and what is PDPM's impact on therapy services all the time and listen to the stories on how this change of payment systems have impacted services provided and jobs.

I was fortunate to be able to get some of your questions answered by Sabrena McCarley MBA-SL, OTR/L, CLIPP, RAC-CT, QCP, who not only presents the webinars for AOTA on PDPM, but eat, breathes and sleeps PDPM because of her positions as the Director of Quality, RehabCare, a Board Member at Large of NARA (National Association of Rehab Providers and Agencies), a Medical Advisory Panel Member for the Living In Place Institute and an AOTPAC Ambassador for the AOTA.

She was able to answer those burning questions that you were wondering, clearing up some misconceptions and providing some concrete examples on what we can do as occupational therapy professionals to help us maintain our professionalism, ethics and feel empowered through these changes.

In addition, with the changes, many facilities are increasing group therapy sessions and many of you are looking for group therapy ideas. So, I decided to put together a list of suggested group ideas to get you going, as well as how to justify that working in a group can still target those performance components needed to work toward their goals.

Resources from the Show:

FAQs on PDPM for practitioners to easily access in order to understand what PDPM is and to "arm" themselves with the regulations when speaking with their employer:  https://www.cms.gov/medicare/medicare-fee-for-service-payment/snfpps/pdpm.html

Occupational Therapy Goal Writing, Objective Measures + Goals Bank (for adults!) Ebook

Documentation Series and pdf on Skilled Terminology 

People are searching for group treatment ideas, so some resources include:

1. I created a list of some group therapy ideas and ways to work on components while still focusing on the patient's goals here to download for free,
2. You can become a Learning Lab member with tons of group ideas and brainstorming how to make groups effective, client centered and (dare I say it?!?) FUN and
3. I also share group ideas from time to time on Instagram