President’s Message (March 2018)
With a little warmth from the sun and a stretch on daylight hours, it at last seems that Spring is not too far away. It feels like we have been hunkering down for the past few months with the bitter cold, snow and ice that we have endured this winter. However, we were very fortunate that on January 17th the weather gods were with us allowing all to travel safely to the Statehouse for the 2018 PT Day at the Statehouse. In talking last week with the President of the Kentucky Physical Therapy Association, I heard that Kentucky had to cancel their 2018 PT Day at the Statehouse due to ice.
During APTA’s 2018 Combined Section’s Meeting (CSM) last week in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to attend a number of leadership meetings and educational sessions. During the leadership meetings, we got to hear about the recent legislative changes surrounding the therapy cap. Exciting news this year…the Hard Therapy Cap was repealed!! APTA has worked really hard advocating for our patients to get this repealed. This is a huge victory for us! However, along with that legislation, was the announcement that PTA/OTA services will be reimbursed at 85% as of January 1, 2022. Modifiers and data collection from Medicare will start in 2019, so please be aware as we get closer to 2019 that a modifier may be needed. Since reimbursement is not affected until 2022, it gives APTA and AOTA a chance to work with Congress to try to repeal this portion of the legislation.
Currently the INAPTA State Legislative Committee is working on the final updates to the IN PT Practice Act and will be sharing these changes with members over the coming months. These changes incorporate language from the Model Practice Act from FSBPT with our focus being on term protection and the establishment of our own PT Licensure Board, moving us away from having a PT Committee under the direction of the Indiana Medical Board.
For those of you who might have been following HB 1384, a bill that the chiropractors introduced this session, INAPTA is fully aware of the contents of HB 1384 and the process surrounding it. We have an agreement with the chiropractors that we would not oppose their efforts to include dry needling in their practice act and they will not oppose our effort to include it next session. We honored our agreement, and we have every confidence that they will honor theirs as well. Our lobbyist, Steve Beebe, has communicated frequently with Pat McGuffey, the lobbyist for the chiropractors, resulting in the chiros agreeing to remove the term “physiotherapy” from their bill.
In December 2017 and January 2018, a task force consisting of the following members, Dolly Phadke, PT, Ryan Wood, PT, DPT, MHA, OCS and Sean Bagbey, PTA, MHA, ATC reviewed job descriptions for practice and payment specialists from other states. They then worked to create a job description for what was felt would work best for Indiana. The INAPTA Board of Directors approved this description at their January meeting. We will be posting this position in the next few weeks, moving toward hiring a Practice and Payment Specialist.
The INAPTA Spring Meeting is just around the corner. We are delighted that Jennifer Green Wilson, PT, MBA, EdD will be leading us, continuing her series of presentations on leadership. The morning programming will run from 9:00 am – 12:15 pm and three (3) contact hours of education will be offered for free to members. Please register online HERE. Also at this meeting, there will be a member vote to adopt the bylaw amendment, decreasing membership dues.
In addition to the Spring Meeting there are several continuing education opportunities over the next 2-3 months where you can complete your required contact hours prior to the June 30, 2018 license renewal deadline. Please check out the INAPTA website for details along with details on the INAPTA Ethics and Jurisprudence Course.
Thank you for your support of our professional association through your membership and voice. Working together we can accomplish more to promote the role of physical therapy in changing the lives of our patients.
Emily
Emily J Slaven, PT, PhD, MS
Orthopedic Clinical Specialist
Fellow American Academy Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy
Credentialed Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy