MDS Alert

Published on Sun Nov 18, 2007 PDF

See if your answer jibes with what CMS says.

Ready, set ... get your calculators out and add up the minutes for reporting in Section P1b of the MDS.

As the last treatment modality for the day, a resident uses an exercise bicycle for 10 minutes. The therapist spends two minutes setting the resident up on the apparatus. The therapist, or therapist assistant under the supervision of a physical therapist, then leaves the resident to help another resident in the same exercise room. However, the therapist still has eye contact with the resident and provides supervision, verbal encouragement and direction to the resident on the bicycle.

The resident is supervised during two five-minute cycling periods and for one two-minute rest between the exercise periods. The resident took one minute to get out of the apparatus. The resident did three additional treatment activities totaling 45 minutes before beginning to cycle.

The total number of reportable therapy minutes for the MDS would be ___ minutes.Answer

Sixty minutes, according to the RAI user's manual. This delivery of therapy is often referred to as supervisory treatment, dovetailing, or concurrent therapy, and you can count it under Part A. Medicare B only recognizes individual (one-on-one) therapy and group therapy.