The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) yesterday further clarified the regulations on the new functional limitation reporting requirements to include reporting on patients who have Medicare part B as a primary insurance and those who have Medicare part B as a secondary insurance.

CMS was mandated to collect information on claim forms regarding beneficiaries' function and condition, therapy services furnished, and outcomes achieved on patient function by the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2012. As of January 1, all practice settings that provide outpatient therapy services must include the functional limitation data on the claim form. To ensure a smooth transition, CMS sets forth a testing period January 1-July 1. After July 1, claims submitted without the appropriate G-codes and modifiers will be returned unpaid. For additional details and resources on these new requirements, see the FAQ under General Information on APTA's Functional Limitation Reporting Under Medicare webpage.  

Authors of an article published online in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise say their finding of greater hip adduction in female runners who develop patellofemoral pain (PFP) is in agreement with previous cross sectional studies. These results suggest that runners who develop PFP use a different proximal neuromuscular control strategy than those who remain healthy. Injury prevention and treatment strategies should consider addressing these altered hip mechanics, they add.  

For this investigation, the authors conducted an instrumented gait analysis on 400 healthy women runners and tracked them for any injuries that they may have developed over a 2-year period. Fifteen cases of PFP developed, which were confirmed by a medical professional. The participants' initial running mechanics were compared with an equal number of runners who remained uninjured.

According to the results, the runners who developed PFP exhibited significantly greater hip adduction. No statistically significant differences were found for the hip internal rotation angle or rearfoot eversion.

APTA member Brian Noehren, PT, is the article's lead author. APTA member Irene Davis, PT, PhD, FAPTA, is coauthor. 

The Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) invites comments from the physical therapy community regarding the physical therapist and physical therapist assistant education programs scheduled for review at CAPTE's April 2013 meeting. Comments will be accepted until March 1.

A list of programs scheduled for review is available in this document. Information about how to provide comments is available on CAPTE's website.