Tag: Clinician Task Force (CTF)
Clinicians worry CMS policy shift could undermine CRT decisions
October 17, 2025Liz Beaulieu, Editor
MINNEAPOLIS – The Clinician Task Force has concerns with CMS’s decision to no longer require a face-to-face evaluation for identical replacement power mobility devices (PMDs) at the five-year reasonable useful lifetime (RUL).
The CTF calls the evaluation with a seating and mobility clinician at the five-year RUL “a safeguard” to ensure replacement equipment, particularly complex rehab technology (CRT), is still the most beneficial for the user. Without it, the organization...
Clinician Task Force puts itself out there
September 12, 2025Liz Beaulieu, Editor
MINNEAPOLIS – The Clinician Task Force has budgeted money to cover flights and hotels for its members to accept more speaking opportunities, says Executive Director Tamara Kittelson.
The organization, for example, has offered to host a number of sessions next year at the Abilities Expos in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, which will also feature content for clinicians, providers and manufacturers for the first time. One of those sessions: A multi-disciplinary panel discussion on...
Meet CTF’s new leader, Tamara Kittelson
January 17, 2025Liz Beaulieu, Editor
MINNEAPOLIS – One of Tamara Kittelson’s major goals as the new executive director of the Clinician Task Force is to elevate the role of clinicians in the provision of complex rehab technology.
“There seems to be considerable concern among our membership and myself about continuing to value the role of clinicians,” said Kittelson, an occupational therapist and a RESNA-certified ATP/SMS who has been a member of the CTF since 2008. “We’re not just people...
Clinician Task Force names new leader
December 10, 2024HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine – The Clinician Task Force will have a new executive director, Tamara Kittelson, starting in January 2025. Kittelson is an occupational therapist, RESNA-certified ATP/SMS and ISWP-certified intermediate wheelchair provider who has worked in the complex rehab industry for 39 years. She founded Posture 24/7 and Eleanore’s Project, promoting 24-hour posture care management and appropriate seating and wheeled mobility provision in low resource settings, and has presented and...
CTF releases position statement
February 28, 2024HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine – The Clinician Task Force (CTF) has released a “Scope of Practice for Seating and Wheeled Mobility Clinical Services” to define occupational and physical therapy roles and responsibilities in seating and wheeled mobility services. The position statement, completed in December 2023, also provides guidance for educators, rehabilitation professionals, medical providers, funding sources, policymakers and seating and wheeled mobility manufacturers. “We saw...
Katie Fitzgerald ‘opens doors’ at CTF
February 16, 2024Liz Beaulieu, Editor
CANTON, Ohio – Katie Fitzgerald says the Clinician Task Force, where she is a new executive board member, is a good place to channel her passions for advocacy, data and what she calls “knowledge translation.”
Fitzgerald, PT, DPT, NCS, teaches in the physical therapy program at Walsh University in Canton, Ohio, but prior to making the switch to academia, she was a clinician for 15 years.
HME News: How did you get interested in specializing in complex rehab technology?
Katie...
Stakeholders make progress on power standing, repair
October 13, 2023Liz Beaulieu, Editor
WASHINGTON – Complex rehab technology stakeholders participated in a call with CMS on Sept. 26 to provide the agency with additional information to support Medicare coverage for power standing systems.
The meeting was led by the ITEM Coalition and attended by Wayne Grau, executive director of NCART, and Cara Masselink, executive director of the Clinician Task Force, as well as physicians, clinicians, manufacturers and consumers.
“I would love to tell you, ‘It’s...
RESNA, CTF urgently seek comments on paper
January 18, 2023HME News Staff
ARLINGTON, Va. – RESNA and the Clinician Task Force seek comments on a draft position paper, “RESNA and CTF Position on the Application of Supported Standing Devices: Current State of the Literature.” The paper describes the results of a rigorous scoping review, analyzing results through an International Classification of Function (ICF) lens, with the goal of producing a position paper explaining the impact of supported standing in a variety of devices. Due to an urgent advocacy...
New ICD-10 codes take effect for mobility devices
December 14, 2022HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – An updated policy article for wheelchair seating that went into effect on Oct. 1, 2022, includes additional ICD-10 codes that will allow Medicare beneficiaries with certain diagnoses to obtain the seating products that they require. The codes were requested by the Clinician Task Force. The codes and diagnoses are: F03 - Unspecified Dementia Group 2 and Group 4 G31.83 - Dementia with Lewy bodies Group 2 and Group 4 G60.0 - Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathy Group 2 Q72 codes...
Seat elevation takes another step forward
November 4, 2022Liz Beaulieu, Editor
YARMOUTH, Maine – Complex rehab stakeholders submitted more than 3,500 comments in support of reconsidering the national coverage determination for mobility assistive equipment to include power seat elevation systems.
“Even CMS said it was quite a large number of comments,” said Wayne Grau, executive director of NCART, on a recent industry webcast, “and these weren’t cut-and-paste comments. But there’s still a long row to go here.”
Stakeholders...