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Patients welcome change in Medicare therapy caps

The federal budget agreement Congress approved last month removes annual caps on how much Medicare pays for physical, occupational or speech therapy,

By Susan Jaffe, Kaiser Health News | Updated on March 15, 2018
Physical therapy session As of Jan. 1, Medicare beneficiaries are eligible for therapy indefinitely as long as their doctor confirms their need for therapy and they continue to meet other requirements. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Physical therapy helps Leon Beers, 73, get out of bed in the morning and maneuver around his home using his walker. Other treatment strengthens his throat muscles so that he can communicate and swallow food, said his sister Karen Morse. But in mid-January, his home health care agency told Morse it could no longer provide these services because he had used all his therapy benefits allowed under Medicare for the year.

Beers, a retired railroad engineer who lives outside Sacramento, Calif., has a form of Parkinson’s disease. The treatments slow its destructive progress and “he will need it for the rest of his life,” Morse said.

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