# Therapy assistant differential

A term used when buying physical therapy practice.

Medicare pays fifteen percent less for a billed unit an assistant furnished more than a tenth of.

Read the unit and not the minute, because that is where the rule bites. Medicare pays 85 cents on the dollar for a billed unit an assistant furnished more than a tenth of, flagged by a modifier that is mandatory on the claim. Below that tenth there is no reduction at all, so a clinic can use assistants heavily and lose nothing on a unit the therapist mostly delivered. Two things follow. Revenue per visit normalizes differently by staff mix, so ask for units by credential and not by therapist. And a clinic leveraging assistants without the modifier has been overpaid, which is the buyer's problem in a stock deal.

Part of: Buying a Physical Therapy Practice (https://searchspheresource.com/guides/buying-a-physical-therapy-practice)

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/guides/buying-a-physical-therapy-practice/terms/therapy-assistant-differential
Not dated: The same editorial definitions as the glossary, inside a trade.

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt