Occupational Therapy Medicare Plan of Care Frequency and Duration

Medicare Plan of Care Question about Occupational Therapy Medicare Plan of Care Frequency and Duration:

“I am a mobile OP PT provider, have a potential patient who has Medicare as her primary. Can I write a PT POC for a specific number of visits over a certain time period (ie 16 visits over 60 days) rather than a specific number of visits per week? I have a potential patient who will be out of town for a few weeklong time periods (trying to sell her house out of state), so I’m not sure how to account for those weeks. Or do I write my POC for what I think is medically necessary (ie 2 times/wk x 8 weeks) and then just put in multiple missed visit notes for the weeklong time periods that she is away? I have not encountered this situation before.”

Answer: Medicare requires frequency to be listed in visits per week and duration to be number of weeks.

Based on the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual section 220.1.2 part B “The frequency refers to the number of times in a week the type of treatment is provided” and “The duration is the number of weeks, or the number of treatment sessions, for THIS
PLAN of care.”