Today's blog post comes from WebPT Senior Writer Charlotte Bohnett, contributing writer Erica Cohen, and WebPT Co-Founder Heidi Jannenga, PT.

Monday and Tuesday we hosted webinars on functional limitation reporting. We got tons of great questions. Here are the most frequently asked ones:

The Basics

What is functional limitation reporting?

Beginning July 1, 2013, CMS is requiring that you complete functional limitation reporting (FLR) on all Medicare part A and part B patients in order to receive reimbursement for your services. Essentially, FLR is a type of reporting focused on the progress of the patient through measurable goals, and supporting documentation is required for reimbursement.

Who created FLR?

CMS developed functional limitation reporting as part of the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2012, which mandated the collection of the following information regarding the beneficiaries on the claim form: function and condition, therapy services furnished, and outcomes achieved on patient function. CMS is enforcing noncompliance.

Why functional limitation reporting?

CMS created FLR to collect information regarding beneficiaries’ functions and conditions, the services therapists provide, and the functional outcomes patients achieve. CMS will use all of this information to better understand the beneficiary population that uses therapy services and how their functional limitations change as a result of the therapy they complete. Furthermore, CMS will use the data they collect to reform future payment structures.

Does FLR apply to rehab therapists?
According to the APTA, “All practice settings that provide outpatient therapy services must perform FLR. Specifically, FLR applies to physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language-pathology (SLP) services furnished in hospitals, critical access hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facilities (CORFs), rehabilitation agencies, home health agencies (when the beneficiary is not under a home health plan of care), and in private offices of therapists, physicians, and nonphysician practitioners.”

How does FLR work?
Therapists will report functional limitations (current status and projected goal for initial examination and at minimum every tenth visit or progress note, and then discharge status and projected goal at discharge) using G-codes and corresponding severity modifiers for all eligible Medicare patients.

What are G-codes and severity modifiers?
G-codes are quality data codes therapists will use to describe their patients’ functional limitation—that is, the primary reason they’re seeking therapeutic services. Upon identifying the primary functional limitation, the therapist will select the corresponding G-code and then assign a severity modifier, which indicates the extent of the severity of the functional limitation. Therapists select an appropriate severity modifier based on the score of an outcome measurement tool as well as their skilled clinical knowledge. Lastly, therapists must also include a therapy modifier (GO, GP, and GN) to indicate that they’re providing therapy services under an OT, PT, or SLP plan of care, respectively.

For a full list of the FLR G-codes and a severity modifier chart, check out this blog post.

What are the benefits of FLR?

With FLR, rehab therapists finally have an outlet to prove that what they do clinically is relevant and deserves payment. It’s an opportunity for rehab therapy professionals to demonstrate the value of their profession. FLR also allows rehab therapists to incorporate clinical judgement to truly assess the severity of a patient’s functional limitation without relying  on patients’ faulty self-assessments, and that leads to better, more effective treatment.

We believe in empowering the entire rehab community to achieve greatness in therapy practice. That’s why we created WebPT, an intuitive, web-based EMR solution exclusively for rehab therapists that offers comprehensive documentation, scheduling, practice management, and billing services.

 Don’t let the name fool you. WebPT isn’t solely for physical therapists. Rather, it’s for the entire rehab therapy community, and we’ve custom tailored our EMR solution to suit the practice of pediatric therapists, including OTs and SLPs. In fact, pediatric therapists helped create the WebPT Pediatric Module, which automatically loads based on the patient’s age, providing peds therapists the ability to complete specific patient tests for their smallest patients.

Note: Each month, we will feature a different member of the WebPT family in our new Staff Spotlight blog series.

Growing up on his grandfather’s farm in eastern Tennessee, Mike Clevenger learned the value of a hard day’s work at a very young age. “We had days where the entire family—60 or 70 people with all of the grandkids—would come together, and we had to vaccinate all of my grandfather’s cattle,” he said. “That’s about 300 head of cattle, going one by one. I learned a lot about hard work and teamwork.”

Mike has since traded his boots and overalls for a headset and a computer screen, but his exceptional work ethic remains unchanged. As a Senior Training Representative in WebPT’s Member Care department, Mike now spends his days helping Members learn all the ins and outs of the WebPT application—which is kind of perfect, because he was always naturally drawn to teaching.

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher,” he said. “But my career path led me to corporate training, which is pretty much the next best thing.”

Before joining the WebPT family, Mike worked as a new hire trainer for Marriott International and as an insurance agent for both Progressive and Travelers. Those positions allowed him to hone his people skills in a business setting, but it’s his innate desire to lend a hand—anytime, anywhere, and to anyone—that makes him such a great fit in his job role at WebPT.

Once signed by the governor, Missouri Senate Bill 159 will give patients greater access to physical therapy at a lower cost. The Missouri APTA Chapter has been working on pushing this bill through for two years. Great job! Learn more here. 

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. Take a few minutes to educate yourself about different communication disorders and the services speech-language pathologists and audiologists provide. Here's some information on school-based SLPs. You can also follow the #BHSM hashtag on Twitter for more. 

And finally, this week is Nurses Week. On behalf of everyone here at WebPT, we'd like to thank all the hard working, caring nurses out there. Thank you for all that you do!

Of course, these are just a few news stories making the rounds this week. You can also find us on Facebook for more PT, OT, and SLP news and updates.