Ellen R. Strunk

Ellen R. Strunk has worked in various roles and settings as a clinician, manager/director, and policy expert. Ellen is an expert at helping customers understand the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) prospective payment systems in the skilled nursing facility and home health settings, as well as outpatient therapy billing for all provider types. For the past 13 years, Ellen has worked with dozens of clients as principal consultant and founder of Rehab Resources and Consulting, Inc. Her experience in both the home and community aspects of the postacute care continuum gives her a unique perspective on finding solutions while ensuring a patient-centered approach is not lost in translation. Ellen also supports organizations’ postacute care work in many areas, including provider education, measure development, and regulatory compliance.

In addition to helping clients meet their operational and clinical goals, Ellen lectures nationally on the topics of regulatory compliance in the postacute care space and coding/billing/documentation to meet medical necessity guidelines and payer regulations, as well as pharmacology for rehabilitation professionals, clinically appropriate exercise for older adults, and the importance of functional outcomes to value-based payment. Ellen is a published author, having contributed to the fourth edition of Guccione’s Geriatric Physical Therapy with a chapter titled “Health Policy for Physical Therapists and Older Adults.”

Volunteerism and advocacy are an important part of Ellen’s life. As an advocate for issues to advance the care of the older adult, she has served on a number of CMS technical expert panels, served as co–project lead on obtaining National Quality Forum endorsement of a functional outcome measure, and personally advocated to Congress and CMS on a number of policies affecting physical therapy.

Ellen is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), having served on the Payment Policy and Advocacy Committee, where she advanced the agenda of physical therapy in postacute care. As a longtime member of the APTA Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy, the APTA Home Health Section, and the APTA Health Policy and Administration Sections, she has served in senior leadership positions as well as authored multiple articles and educational tools for the sections. She serves on a state level as the practice and reimbursement chair for the Alabama Physical Therapy Association. She is a member of the American Health Care Association (AHCA), the National Association of Rehabilitation Providers and Agencies (NARA), and the National Association for the Support of Long Term Care (NASL).