Hi there,
Kiwi (NZ) third year student Therapeutic Recreation student with only a 480 hour internship to go before graduating with the degree. Please contact me with details of internship sites that cater specifically to tobacco control, including cessation; policy formation/regulation; leisure education; and social marketing (or aspects of..)
Shaun Cavanagh
cav_ph31221@hotmail.com
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ACTION ALERT!!!!
TO: All Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists (CTRS)
FROM: G.T. Thompson, Co-Chair - Recreational Therapy Medicare Project (RTMP)
DATE: December 21, 2007
SUBJECT: H.R. 4248 Update
ACTION ALERT UPDATE
As you know ATRA’s House Bill, H.R. 4248 “The Ensuring Medicare Access To Recreational Therapy Act Of 2007” has been introduced in the United States House of Representatives.
Recreational Therapy professionals, consumers, students and other supportive individuals have been doing a great job of contacting Congress throughout the nation to request members of Congress to sign on as H.R. 4248 Bill Sponsors.
CURRENT STATUS: We have the Sponsor and 11 Cosponsors
officially listed as of December 21, 2007.
These Members of Congress that have signed-on include:
Rep Tauscher, Ellen O. [CA-10] (introduced 11/15/2007)
Rep Boucher, Rick [VA-9] - 12/12/2007
Rep Carnahan, Russ [MO-3] - 12/17/2007
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9] - 12/17/2007
Rep English, Phil [PA-3] - 11/15/2007
Rep Etheridge, Bob [NC-2] - 12/5/2007
Rep Gordon, Bart [TN-6] - 12/5/2007
Rep Peterson, John E. [PA-5] - 12/17/2007
Rep Rahall, Nick J., II [WV-3] - 12/11/2007
Rep Rehberg, Dennis R. [MT] - 12/12/2007
Rep Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana [FL-18] - 12/11/2007
Rep Wamp, Zach [TN-3] - 12/12/2007
Accessing the Library of Congress web site at THOMAS.gov and entering 4248 under the Legislation in Current Congress search function can obtain the current status of H.R. 4248.
RECENT EFFORTS:
H.R. 4248 Dear Colleague Letter Circulated
A “Dear Colleague” Letter circulated last week to all 435 Congressional Offices by Representative Tauscher and Representative English.
Medicare Bill passes that includes many temporary Medicare fixes / extensions, but not Recreational Therapy clarification
A slimmed-down Medicare package was passed that essentially pushes everything off until next year to address all over again. On Tuesday December 18th, the Senate passed this bill by unanimous consent and the House also passed the bill.
The final Medicare package leaves all NEW policies on the cutting room floor for now including the provisions of the “The Ensuring Medicare Access To Recreational Therapy Act Of 2007”.
The passed Bill includes a temporary update to the Medicare physician fee schedule and a number of simple extensions of existing policies that would expire if Congress did not pass this bill, particularly in the area of rural health provisions.
A whole host of policy provisions, including our Recreational Therapy coverage clarification, needs your advocacy over the course of the first six months of the new year. Because most of the provisions of this most recent Medicare Bill are only temporary, Congress will be required to take additional Medicare related action within the next six months. This provides us an excellent opportunity to build more support for H.R. 4248!
ACTION REQUESTED:
Continue to request that your United States Member of Congress (U.S. House of Representatives) sign-on as a co-sponsors. There is no time limit at this point.
Please be sure to emphasize:
- CMS (Medicare) has verbally commented that this is zero budget and they would not oppose the language that we have had introduced.
- This is about consumers getting access to services that are already being paid for by Medicare under the inpatient prospective payment systems..
Please keep Lisa Morgan updated at lmorgan@siskinrehab.org when your House member agrees to co-sponsor.
Please Act Now!! Contact Your Members Of Congress!!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!
---------------------------
Members
Debbie Robinson, CTRS and Joe Barrett, CTRS congratulate
NETRA President Sharon Nichols.
Sharon was awarded ATRA's 2007 Distinguished Fellow Award,
the highest honor given by the association.
CONGRATULATIONS Sharon! NETRA is proud to call you our own!
---------------------------
Congratulations to NETRA member Joe Barrett,
CTRS!
Joe was recently featured in an article in Seacoastonline.com
about “Life After Brain Injury”. Click
here to read the article.
---------------------------
NH’s
RT Week Proclamation (click to
open)
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Dear ATRA Colleagues,
The ATRA Coverage Team, led by Tim Passmore and Kathy Murphy
have identified a need for recreational therapists to be
recognized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
(CMS) as national providers. If you or your colleagues work
with Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries or have the potential
in the future, you should sign up for a NPI number following
the instructions below.
Thank you
Ann D. Huston, MPA, CTRS
Executive Director/CEO
American Therapeutic Recreation Association
1414 Prince Street, Suite 204
Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 683-9420
(703) 683-9431 fax
www.atra-tr.org
---------------------------
NPI
After speaking with the CMS National Provider
Identifier (NPI) Specialists several times it appears that
we need only to obtain one NPI “unless you think you
need more” (quote from the NPI specialist). The system
is rather easy follow the following steps to obtain you National
Provider Identifier:
Go to the following website https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/NPPES/Welcome.do
Follow the step by step instructions
Unless you are applying for an organization select Individual
Provider
Continue to follow the step by step instruction – selecting
apply for NPI online link
You will need your address, social security number, telephone
number, the system will eventually link you to a section
which is asking for a license number (unless you have a license
number) continue until there is an option to select the Taxonomy
for your profession
There will be a page which asks for other provider identifiers
if you have one provide it if not select Next
When you reach the page which provides the opportunity to
Add Taxonomy select Add Taxonomy
Select #22 which is titled Respirator, Rehabilitative & Restorative
Service Providers and ignore the right side of the screen
which is for organizations
Recreation Therapist is #225800000X select it and ignore
the blanks for License Number and State Where Issued unless
you are licensed in you state.
Then click save and finish the application
It took approximately 10 minutes to receive an e-mail with
my NPI. As individuals complete the NPI application we will
keep you posted if problems or new information arises.
Please, do not hesitate to contact my office with questions
Tim Passmore, Ed.D., CTRS
Assistant Professor, Leisure Studies
Applied Health & Educational
Psychology
Oklahoma State
University
---------------------------
Sharon Nichols, CTRS, Lou Powell, Re.D.,
CTRS and Debbie Robinson, CTRS were appointed by NH Governor
John Lynch and the NH Executive Council to the Recreational
Therapy Governing Board, a branch of the NH Office of Allied
Health Professionals. Sharon will chair the board and serve
a three year term, Lou will serve a two year term, and Debbie
will serve a one year term. The Recreational Therapy Governing
Board will oversee the implementation of RT Licensure in
NH, which takes effect 7/1/07, and monitor compliance thereafter.
---------------------------
The NH RT Licensure Team, holding their certificates of recognition
from ATRA Front row: Low Powell, Pam Ayotte, Sharon Nichols,
Debbie Robinson, Ed DuPont Back row: Janet Sable, Kathy Sullivan,
Jill Gravink, Geoff Garfinkle
---------------------------
New Hampshire becomes the 3rd state in the
US to achieve licensure for Recreational Therapists!
Yes, you heard right! Starting July 1, 2007, Recreational
Therapists will be eligible for licensure in New Hampshire.
What an accomplishment! Only Utah and North Carolina have
licensure for RT, so we join an elite group.
On May 11, 2006 the NH Sentate completed a lengthy process
of approval for Senate Bill 305, an act relative to the licensure
of recreational therapists. The last step, which we anticipate
to go smoothly, is to have NH Governor John Lynch sign the
act into law this summer.
Special thanks are owed to our legislative sponsors, Senator
Estabrook and Representative Powers. In addition we received
significant assistance from Ed DuPont, a longtime Northeast
Passage supporter who also has important political influence
in the NH Legislature.
The team of CTRS’ that shepherded this bill through
the process was coordinated by Jill Gravink of Northeast
Passage and included Sharon Nichols of Genesis Health Care,
Debbie Robinson of NH Hospital, Geoff Garfinkle of Crotched
Mountain Center, Pam Ayotte of Northeast Rehabilitation Healthcare
Network and Lou Powell and Janet Sable of the University
of New Hampshire.
It is important to note that all major employers of CTRS’ in
NH were part of the process, and a tremendous effort was
made to convince legislators that licensure of recreational
therapists in New Hampshire was the right thing to do to
protect consumers from harm that could arise from unqualified
people acting or presenting themselves as Recreational Therapists
or Therapeutic Recreation Specialists.
What does this mean for you if you are a CTRS who practices
in NH? It means you will need to apply for licensure through
the New Hampshire Office of Licensed Allied Health Professionals.
That process will begin in July 2007. Any person currently
a CTRS in good standing will be eligible for licensure. You
will fill out an application, pay a fee, and be taking an
amazing step forward for RT practice. Maintaining licensure
will require obtaining a certain amount of CEUs within a
specified time period, acting ethically, paying biannual
fees and maintaining your CTRS credential.
People who wish to practice RT in NH will need to be licensed.
The days of someone claiming to be an RT who is not will
be over. The bill protects our language (Recreational Therapist,
Therapeutic Recreation Specialist, CTRS) and reserves it
for those with the appropriate credentials. This is good
news for us, and even better news for consumers of our services.
Having licensed recreational therapists in NH may also have
tremendous implications for reimbursement opportunities through
Medicare and Medicaid. We need to continue to work with local
managed care organizations, and other insurance payers. In
addition, having licensure in NH adds more clout to ATRA’s
work with CMS on the RT Medicare Project. So in essence,
this is “one small step for NH and one giant leap for
the recreational therapy profession”.
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2005 survey results
NETRA mailed out surveys in the fall of 2005 and received
back a total of 30. What follows are some lists and charts
summarizing the results.
Question one asked members to rank the membership services
that were most important to them. The scale was 1= most
important to 5=least important. (Note: some people chose
to use the numbers multiple times so the total number of
responses is greater than 30.) Click
here to see results.
Additional questions focused on members' ability to use
the website, what they would like to see added to the NETRA
website, and what they envision NETRA's role in New England
to be. Click
here to see those results.
The last several questions asked what educational topics
members were interested in, who they might suggest as speakers,
and if their facility might be willing to host an educational
session. This information is being utilized by NETRA for
planning purposes and was not compiled for viewing on the
website.
THANK YOU to all who took the time to respond. As always,
your comments are appreciated and help shape our future
directions!
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NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
Summer
2001: Volume 7, Number 3
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