Why APMA?

I am asked occasionally why one should join a professional organization. The reasons for joining may be as many and varied as there are members. But some common threads are obvious. There are many benefits to being part of an organization of your peers. Certainly, the shared common goals and the strength of many are two of the most common reasons for joining.

APMA is the organization that represents all of podiatric medicine.

Without APMA, who would represent the profession at the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) seeking appropriate policies and payments? Who would represent the profession at the CPT and RUC meetings of the American Medical Association to ensure proper codes and relative values for the services that we perform?

Who would assemble the data that demonstrate the needs of the profession regarding overhead practice expenses and malpractice costs to ensure that our reimbursement from HCFA is as accurate as it can be?

Who would champion the cause of podiatric physicians in the world of managed care to protect us from fee discrimination and improper credentialing? Who would be there for the profession to publicize the benefits of proper podiatric medical care to the public?

Well, there is no other organization that can satisfy all of those needs of the entire profession. Your APMA is a strong and vital organization that advocates for the needs of the profession each and every day. Yes, we have many affiliated and related organizations that work to meet the needs of their constituencies, but only APMA represents the entire profession.

The current work of APMA on behalf of the entire profession has had a great impact on podiatric medicine and has involved a wide variety of activities. For example, the work of the Health Policy Committee on the practice expense revisions of the RBRVS system has led to more than $150 million in additional revenue to DPMs within the Medicare system.

The Carrier Advisory Committee (CAC) system that we created more than five years ago has given considerable knowledge and power to your local state CAC representatives, which enables them to advocate for improved local Medicare policies.

The work of the Health Systems Committee has convinced some HMOs to pay for both initial evaluation and management visits and minor procedures when the two are performed on the same date of service. The committee has also worked with other HMOs so that they recognize both of the official board-certification systems instead of just the one they previously recognized.

Our public relations efforts have generated more than 4 billion media impressions to effectively get the word out to the public that DPMs are the appropriate providers of foot and ankle care. The success of this program was recently underscored when APMA’s public relations program was awarded the prestigious Gold Circle Award from the American Society of Association Executives.

Another exciting example of advocacy for the needs of the public is the “Your Feet Can Last a Lifetime” Campaign Coalition, involving APMA working in collaboration with other organizations such as HCFA, the American Diabetes Association, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Lower Extremity Amputation Prevention (LEAP) project, the American Public Health Association, and the Indian Health Service to reduce the number of lower-extremity amputations in persons with diabetes in the United States.

There are, of course, many other areas of advocacy, such as the student recruitment project, too numerous to mention in this limited space. Members can keep track of all of these advocacy activities by reading the APMA NEWS and the APMA Alert on a regular basis, and also via the Internet at the APMA member Web site. I suggest you archive these items of importance, as well as a new member benefit beginning this month—a coding newsletter.

I hope you are proud of your APMA and see that your dues dollars are being spent on programs that truly benefit you, the member, and the patients whom we serve.

Yes, there is still much to accomplish, and that is why this organization must—and will—get stronger in the future. There will be many challenges to the profession in the future, and a strong, viable APMA will be able to meet those challenges head on.

The leadership of APMA thanks those of you who have joined us in this endeavor, and we suggest that you encourage those of our colleagues who have not joined us to sign up now and become part of a great team of professionals pulling together to strengthen the profession of podiatric medicine.