Posted on March 3, 2017 by Chapter Staff
Originally Published in HAPTA’s e-Newsletter, What’s HAPTAnin’ – March 2017

I had the pleasure of attending a variety of meetings during APTA’s Combined Sections Meeting. APTA President Sharon Dunn and CEO Justin Moore offered updates and a look at the future. We heard successful programming and how-tos from component leaders from around the country, and updates about practice, legislative and membership issues from APTA staff.

The 2016 successes included:

  • The #ChoosePT multi-media campaign took off with the PSA reaching 77 million viewers.
  • PT licensure compact legislation has been passed in five states so far with nine more pursuing legislation in 2017. http://www.fsbpt.org/FreeResources/PhysicalTherapyLicensureCompact.aspx
  • The December 2016 Movement System Summit sounded innovative and thought provoking. http://www.apta.org/MovementSystem/Summit/
  • 2016 state Legislative wins included mention of Hawaii’s inclusion of PTs as part of the team to treat concussed student athletes. Wins on the federal level included the 21st Century Cures Act, which increased funding to NIH and will allow locum tenens coverage through Medicare in some geographic areas.

As APTA looks ahead, here are things that stand out:

  • APTA will turn 100 in 2021. Stay tuned for strategic thinking and celebration planning as it starts to develop.
  • “7 for 2017” areas of focus: 1) new CPT codes, 2) MIPS (required reporting could be two years away, 3 ) #choosePT ongoing, 4) student loan support, 5) Enhanced PTJournal (online by 2019), 6) diversity, 7) the PT Outcomes Registry.

Speaking of the PT Outcomes Registry – after several years of preparation and testing it has launched for public use! Because of the ability to pull data from your EHR system and use the data for quality initiative reporting, practices will be able to track their outcomes related to other practices and will increase opportunities to participate in collaborative care. Visit the PT Outcomes Registry website for more information. http://www.ptoutcomes.com/Home.aspx

And finally – in 2017, APTA will exceed the 100,000 membership mark. It currently stands at almost 98,000. It always fluctuates a bit so it’s safe to say we have more than 95,000. With a little push we can reach 100K by the APTA House of Delegates in June!

Thank YOU all for joining us on this membership journey and for serving our patients in this noble profession.

Gregg Pacilio
HAPTA President