On March 11, the Medicare Home Health Accessibility Act was reintroduced in the House of Representatives by a bipartisan coalition of legislators including Representatives Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), Dr. John Joyce (R-PA), Paul Tonko (D-NY), and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX).

The bill would enable occupational therapy (OT) to be ordered as a stand-alone home health service for Medicare beneficiaries. Currently, OT is the only therapy service that does not qualify as a primary benefit under Medicare’s Part A home health benefit. As a result, OT services cannot be provided in a beneficiary’s home unless nursing or other therapy services, like physical therapy or speech-language pathology, are also prescribed at the start of care.

The Medicare Home Health Accessibility Act would change the statutory language defining skilled needs for home health to include occupational therapy as a qualifying service to receive home health.

LeadingAge will be monitoring this legislation closely.