By Mark Bouziane, PT, and Tom Bohanon, DPT

On January 17th, the VPTA held its annual Lobby Day at the General Assembly.  Due to renovations at the capitol, our state legislators were moved to the Pocahontas Building.  Our delegation consisted of a small group of members (Josh Bailey, Tom Bohanon, Geoff Gunther, Amber Walter, Brandon Smith, and Mark Bouziane). 

During our scheduled meetings, we discussed several health care issues, such as:

1. #ChoosePT - our national campaign that raises awareness about the risks of opioids and the safe alternative of physical therapy for chronic pain management;
2. Licensure Compact - to increase consumer access to physical therapy services by reducing regulatory barriers to interstate mobility and cross-state practice; The licensure compact will allow Clinicians for Licensure privileges in Compact member states without going through the process of full licensure. This is a legislative initiative we will work on in the future. 
3. Fall Prevention Week - (House Joint Resolution), which will be the 3rd week of September, to address the leading cause of unintentional fatal and nonfatal injuries and hospitalizations among Virginians 65 and older; and,
4. Debility Placard - that would add physical therapist to the current list of providers (MD, PA, NP), based on test and measures utilized by our profession to determine a clients’ functional disability.

Additionally, several of our legislators were interested in discussing Medicaid expansion, which is on the new governor’s agenda to complete.  They also discussed how to improve access to quality health care for their constituents in under-served areas of the commonwealth.

While we had a very successful day, we strongly recommend that all members (PTs, PTAs and students) contact their legislators to set up meetings during the current session of the General Assembly in order to discuss these and other health care issues that may arise.

It's important for the physical therapy profession to advocate for this critical, permanent fix to the therapy cap. Contact your members of Congress today via email, phone, and social media, and urge them to pass the therapy cap permanent fix as soon as possible. Visit APTA's Medicare Therapy Cap webpage for more information, download the APTA Action App to keep up to date on action alerts, and be sure to stay tuned for additional updates.

Learn more about the Therapy Cap.

The Central District is currently seeking a secretary to serve on its Board. Primary responsibilities include attending the periodic Board meetings and taking the minutes (notes) at the meetings. No prior experience needed! This is a great opportunity to enhance your resume and give back to the association! If you are interested in this position, please email vpta@apta.org.

Date: Tuesday, March 30, 2018

Site: PIVOT Physical Therapy; 751 J. Clyde Morris Boulevard, Newport News

Speaker: Brian Edmunds, PT, DPT, NCS 

Topic: Vestibular Therapy with Considerations for Post-Concussion Rehab

The Northern District holds monthly meetings, networking events, and participates in charity events, between September and May. Meetings consist of social networking time, a business meeting to update members on Virginia Physical Therapy news, and an educational presentation. They are held at clinics in the Northern District. Meeting notifications are sent out to Northern members' APTA-listed emails.

Download the Spring Conference brochure Here.

The VPTA is happy to introduce our members to a great new benefit called CEU Locker.

CEU Locker provides an easy and convenient method for tracking your CEU requirements in our state, searching for approved courses that meet state requirements, and being assured that the courses you are taking provide quality content for our specialty.

VPTA will be providing the easy-to-recognize official seal for all approved courses. As a CEU Holder, you only need to look for this seal when searching for your courses to be assured that they have been vetted and approved and that they meet state requirements. After you have completed an approved course, simply type the CEU Locker number into your online dashboard; the course information instantly will be archived for safekeeping.

As an additional benefit to your practice, our website will begin featuring a robust, searchable listing of approved courses that meet state requirements.

Find all this here.

Usage of the CEU Locker service is an exclusive benefit of your VPTA membership. Thank you for being a member, and please let us know how much you like using CEU Locker!

We have great news! Effective December 18, 2017, Humana no longer requires preauthorization for outpatient physical, speech and occupational therapy services for patients with commercial and Medicare Advantage (MA) coverage. For additional details, visit Humana.com.

By now, most physical therapists (PTs) have heard the news: The final 2018 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) released in early November by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) included some significant variations from the PFS proposed in July. Instead of finalizing CPT code values that were the same as—and occasionally larger than—current values, CMS opted to offer up a more complicated combination of cuts and increases that could affect PTs in different ways, depending on their case-mix and billing patterns.

So Here are APTA's top 4 suggestions.

CMS has published the proposed physician fee schedule for 2018, and the news is good!

Out of approximately 19 CPT codes used frequently by physical therapists, the Relative Value Unit (RVU) will remain the same. The remaining 6 codes will undergo an increase relative to the RVU established for the 2017 fee schedule.

While it is important to remember that this is an initial proposal and not final for 2018, it is a very good sign for physical therapists using these codes who have witnessed more fee schedule decreases than increases in recent years.

It is also important to recognize that this type of positive change does not happen by luck nor does it occur without input from primary stakeholders. The APTA has worked tirelessly with the Health Care Professional Advisory Committee to the American Medical Association over the past year to assure that the care provided by physical therapists is not undervalued.

You can find more information about the proposed rule HERE.