Letter from the Chair
Robert Krug, MD President and CEO Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital Medical Director, PM&R Service Line
COVID-19 Special Issue AMRPA and IRFs Responding to COVID-19 Pandemic I was recently asked to provide a quote for a health care periodical detailing how our industry has been challenged by COVID-19 and how long I anticipate these challenges will last. As I drafted my response, I recalled a point that AMRPA Vice Chairman Anthony Cuzzola raised during a recent meeting. He asserted that it will be absolutely critical to educate policymakers on the “post-ICU” side of this pandemic, which will uniquely impact our rehabilitation hospitals well after the public health emergency is technically declared over. As I’ve started to hear more frequently on our industry-wide calls, many COVID-19 survivors are requiring prolonged ventilator support, often with residual lung and cardiac issues, along with profound deconditioning and co-morbidities. To Anthony’s point, our hospitals are equipped – more than any other post-acute care provider – to deliver the intensive, long-term rehabilitation required for these patients to regain their prior levels of function. This in turn makes robust IRF access all the more critical in future post-acute care payment policies. To this end, AMRPA is working to ensure that policymakers understand both the current needs of IRFs in COVID-19 hotspots, as well as the industry-wide relief that will be required to meet the long-term rehabilitation needs of COVID-19 patients. For example, our Association has highlighted the significant operational expenses that some frontline IRFs are incurring as part of their COVID-19 response, such as creating negative pressure rooms, adding bed capacity and additional respiratory therapy services, and acquiring the necessary personal protective equipment to ensure staff safety in caring for these patients. In addition to our efforts focused on fiscal relief, AMRPA leadership and staff have held weekly (at a minimum) meetings with CMS leaders and Members of Congress to discuss the emerging clinical and operational issues facing our members and importance of certain types of regulatory relief. AMRPA has successfully advocated for certain types of waivers and flexibilities – including audit relief, a waiver of the three-hour rule, and 60% rule relaxation. I urge members to continue to reach out to leadership and staff and inform us if and how other regulations are impeding your COVID-19 response efforts so that our advocacy is aligned with the issues facing our industry in real-time. In closing, our members are to be applauded for putting patients first and doing what is needed for their communities to address the crisis. While this will undoubtedly be a challenging time for our members, I also believe that IRFs have and will continue to distinguish their critical role in the post-acute care sector through our response efforts. Rest assured that AMRPA is working on behalf of all of our members to ensure that Congress and CMS will address these extraordinary efforts – both now and in the future – through effective regulatory and legislative change.
COVID-19 Special Issue
AMRPA Magazine / May 2020
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