Role of Functional Assessment

File cabinet with the Functional assessment folder exposedIn order to establish rehabilitative medical necessity and to guide a rehabilitation plan, the functional assessment must do two things:

  • Describe how the person is functioning in each of the areas
  • Describe how the mental illness is interfering with and impacting the functioning
  • Descriptive data clearly describes how the person is functioning in each of the areas and clarifies how the symptoms of the mental illness are interfering and impacting the functioning in a life domain.
The functional assessment should distinguish which condition is causing which functional impairment. This is especially important when one or more of the conditions is NOT a covered mental health diagnosis.