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Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Note:

Chiropractors Can't Order Home Care, CMS Reminds

Published on Tue Aug 02, 2011

Don't let a mistake on Medicare's part mess up your physician referrals. According to an Aug. 17 CMS e-mail, chiropractors are not eligible to order and refer items or services to Medicare beneficiaries. Chiropractors were "incorrectly included" in previous lists of physicians and practitioner types that can order and refer, CMS noted. The Social Security Act and other documents previously included the phrase, "doctors of chiropractic medicine are not eligible to order and refer," so CMS is revising documents to reflect this. "Medicare coverage extends only to treatment by means of manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation," CMS explains in the email. "All other services furnished or ordered bychiropractors are not covered."
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