INAPTA Members,

As we approach the end of this calendar year, I want to thank you for your support of INAPTA. Your dedication to the profession, whether by being a member of INAPTA or taking a role in the leadership of our association, has helped us move the profession forward in 2017. Much has been accomplished this year, and the foundation for what will occur in 2018 and 2019 has been firmly set.

You may have noticed this year that members of INAPTA have been very involved with service activities around the state. Much of this has been driven by the hard work of the Service Task Force. The Service Task Force coordinated PT Day of Service events around the state on and around October 14th as well as multiple other service events throughout the year. A large thanks goes to Jessica Prothero, PT, PCS, for leading this task force along with Sean Bagbey, PTA, MHA, ATC, Andrea Ammerman, PT, DPT, Sarah Kennan, PT, DPT and Fran McDonald, PT, DPT. It is clear that INAPTA members are finding opportunities to step out into our communities to share how physical therapy can maximize the health and wellbeing of others.

In 2017, the INAPTA State Legislative Committee has made great progress writing the language to update the Indiana Physical Therapy Practice Act. The goal is to bring these updates to the 2019 Indiana Legislative Session. At this time, we do not anticipate bringing any legislative changes forward in 2018, but we will be attentive to legislative changes that others might bring that impact our practice as physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. In 2018, we will have a PT Day at the Statehouse on January 17th. The focus of our visit this year will be the #ChoosePT campaign. A resolution outlining the role of physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in the opioid epidemic will be read during the programming on the 17th and there will be time for therapists to meet with legislators to share personal experiences of how physical therapy does change lives. I encourage you to attend this event and support our profession. You can register for this event HERE. Registration is key so we can identify which legislative districts are represented and of course have you included in the lunch count!

Communication about legislative events such as the 2018 PT Day at the Statehouse will now be easier through the use of the APTA Action App. This is a free app that allows for communication about both National and State legislative activity. INAPTA recently opened our state portal. Here you can simply type in your address, and it will display your Senator and Representative. In addition, there is information about the INAPTA PAC and the ability to contribute to the PAC directly from your phone. Lastly, we will be using the app along with other modes of communication to provide you with talking points for the 2018 PT Day at the Statehouse.

Over the past few months, there has been great discussion among those on the INAPTA Board of Directors (BOD) regarding ways to continue moving our profession forward. Legislative changes will definitely allow us to practice within the scope of our education. Legislative changes come via the relationships that have been developed with our legislators and also with the financial support given to their campaigns. Many of you may already be aware that your membership dues each year cannot be used to support the work of legislators who support our profession.  For this reason, the BOD is proposing a unique change in our membership dues. We will be proposing to membership a $10 reduction in dues for all membership categories. With this reduction, we would then ask that you consider contributing $10 to the INAPTA PAC. The BOD introduced this idea at the 2017 Business Meeting on October 27th and we had some great discussion. More information on this bylaw amendment will be communicated in early 2018.  If successful, the dues reduction would go into effect in 2019. That doesn’t mean you have to wait to contribute to the PAC, please consider doing so now by clicking HERE.

We had a very successful 2017 Fall Conference that started on Friday evening with the Annual Business Meeting followed by the Awards Dinner. Both events were held at the Rathskellar in downtown Indianapolis. The night concluded with a speed-dating event where students and clinicians had the opportunity to meet with a number of clinicians who had specific areas of specialization. On Saturday, there were three educational tracts including the HPA LAMP Leadership course along with the inaugural meeting of the Pediatric and Student Special Interest Groups.

Being a member of INAPTA comes with a price tag. I, along with the INAPTA BOD, appreciate that you have made a deliberate choice to support your professional association. During our strategic planning session, we talked a lot about the value members receive from their membership. The BOD feels that practice and payment are two vital areas that affect all therapists in Indiana. For this reason, we have allocated funds in 2018 to hire a Practice and Payment Specialist. We envision that this individual will work closely with our current Practice and Payment Committees to provide timely answers to your questions regarding practice and payment. In addition, we hope to continue to develop communications with payers in the state so we can have a stronger voice for the payment of the services that our patients receive. Currently, a task force is working to developing the job description and will report back to the INAPTA BOD in January. I will keep you all informed on the progress of this initiative and future member benefit.

Looking ahead to 2018 we have a lot planned. We hope that you join us on January 17th for the PT Day at the Statehouse. On March 24th we will be holding our Spring Meeting at Bradford Woods and in September we will be having our Fall Conference as a joint Conference with the Kentucky Physical Therapy Association in Louisville.

As we are heading into the final few weeks of 2017, I again want to thank you for your support of INAPTA and to wish you a safe and peaceful holiday season.

Best wishes,

Emily Slaven, PT, PhD
President, INAPTA