APMA News - July/August 2024 - 2

president's message
Putting Money in
Members' Pockets
I recently responded to a member who questioned how APMA
returns on his investment of dues dollars. I want to share with the full
membership my response to him, originally published in PM News:
In addition to defending members' reputations from scurrilous
attacks that could have a legitimate impact on their patient volume,
APMA is the leading organization protecting members from fee cuts,
onerous payer policies, and more, all of which affect your bottom line.
Following advocacy by APMA to change office and other outpatient E/M level
selection methodology and advocacy to increase payment associated with those
services, in 2022 podiatrists submitted approximately 530,000 more Level 4 and 5
office and other outpatient E/M services than in 2018, resulting in approximately
$76.8 million more paid to podiatric physicians. That alone is roughly $4,600 per
practicing podiatric physician, about five times the cost of full, active member dues.
This figure does not account for the additional many millions of dollars we kept in
podiatrists' pockets when we successfully advocated against the 2018 podiatry-specific
G codes proposal. APMA's tireless work on that proposal and the -59 modifier
and -25 modifier has saved members hundreds of millions of dollars.
Recently, APMA announced that after more than a year of advocacy efforts, our
association succeeded in advocating for Novitas and First Coast Part B MACs to allow
submission of medically necessary repeat nail avulsions and excisions with a KX modifier
appended when the medical record specifies the indication. APMA is looking to
extend this practice to the other five MACs as well.
In addition, our payer advocacy has averted multiple significant cuts for podiatrists
in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Every year, APMA immediately evaluates
and responds to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule, strenuously
opposing proposals that would negatively impact our members. This year, we avoided
a 3.4-percent cut. The proposed rule for 2025 was recently released, and our team is
evaluating it and preparing comments.
APMA also provides outstanding tools to support your practice in saving money.
Our APMA Business Mastercard offers 5-percent cash back on medical supplies and
equipment and 2.25-percent cash back on everything else. Combine it with the
savings through our relationship with Talar Medical, our preferred GPO, and your
practice could save thousands. Participants in the APMA Registry who reported for
MIPS during the past seven performance years saved a minimum of $3.7 million in
negative payment adjustments.
Finally, APMA is the only organization representing podiatrists at the AMA RUC, the
body that provides physician recommendations to CMS about the value of codes,
meaning we are the leading voice for podiatrists in determining the value of every
service you submit for payment to Medicare.
APMA is putting money back in your pocket every day. You could choose not to
pay APMA dues (which have not increased in more than a decade), and you would
save several hundred dollars per year. Or you could choose to continue to support
the organization that puts tens of thousands of dollars in your wallet every year. That
choice has always been clear to me.
APMA News (ISSN 8750-2585) is published bimonthly
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Editor Aimee Condayan
Contributing Editor Will Scott
Copy Editor Elizabeth Dorcey, MA
Graphic Designer Tara Smith
Art Director Emeritus Edith A. Caro
Lawrence Santi, DPM, President
2
apmanews
JULY/AUGUST 2024
Senior Director, Communications, Marketing,
and Membership Peggy Tresky, MA
© 2024, APMA
APMA News - July/August 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of APMA News - July/August 2024
