Federal register
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These rules confirm interim final rules published in October 1982, and make the following changes: Provide that a physician who serves without compensation as an officer or director of any home health agency (HHA) is not, for that reason alone, considered to have a significant financial or contractual relationship with the HHA and therefore is not prohibited from certifying the need for home health services and establishing and reviewing a plan of treatment for services to be furnished by that HHA. Remove the provision that a physician who is a partner in an HHA organized as a partnership is, for that reason alone, considered to have a significant ownership interest in the HHA. Under the revised rule, a partner is not prohibited from certifying the need for home health services and establishing and reviewing a plan of treatment for services to be furnished by that HHA, unless he or she has an ownership interest of 5 percent or more. ⋯ Those provisions were contained in previous rules and were unintentionally omitted in the October 1982 revisions. Clarify that--A plan of treatment for speech pathology services may be established only by a physician or by the speech pathologist who will furnish the services to the particular individual; A physician must review a plan established by a speech pathologist; and It is not the intent to require that the plan be established or reviewed by a particular physician. The first and third changes are required to implement recent statutory amendments which provide exemptions from
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The Assistant Secretary for Health, with the approval of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, amends the regulations governing certificate of need reviews by State health planning and development agencies (State Agencies) and health systems agencies (HSAs). The amendments accomplish two tasks: (1) To implement amendments to the Public Health Service Act made by the Health Programs Extension Act of 1980 (Pub. ⋯ Under the provisions of Title XV of the Public Health Service Act, the planning agencies are required to administer certificate of need programs consistent with the Department's regulations, under which they review and determine the need for proposed capital expenditures, institutional health services and major medical equipment. These regulations change the requirements for satisfactory certificate of need programs.
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The Veterans Administration is proposing to amend its medical regulations (38 CFR Part 17) to conform with provisions of Pub. L. 89-160, Veterans' Health Care Amendments of 1983. The proposed amendment redefines medical services to include preventive health care and provides continuing treatment eligibility for certain persons disabled as a result of VA treatment.
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These regulations conform existing Medicare regulations to a statutory change that expanded Medicare coverage of services furnished by optometrists to include examination services related to the condition of aphakia (absence of the natural crystalline lens of the eye). Existing regulations limit coverage of optometrists' services to dispensing services in connection with the actual fitting and provision of prosthetic lenses. The regulations are based on section 937 of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1980 (Pub. L. 96-499).
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This notice establishes revised schedules of salary equivalency guidelines for Medicare reimbursement for the reasonable costs of physical therapy and respiratory therapy services furnished under an arrangement by an outside contractor except for inpatient hospital services paid for under the new prospective payment system or reimbursed under the rate of increase limits. The schedules are used by Medicare fiscal intermediaries to determine the maximum allowable cost of those services. We are revising the methodology used to establish the schedules, and we are updating the guideline amounts to account for increases in inflation. ⋯ Under the prospective payment regulations and conforming changes implementing Pub. L. 98--21 (published September 1, 1983, 48 FR 39752), effective with cost reporting periods beginning on or after October 1, 1983, we eliminated the salary equivalency guidelines for physical and respiratory therapy services provided as inpatient hospital services. The guidelines will continue to apply to outpatient hospital services and to services furnished by other providers.