07/03/2024    Lawrence A. Santi, DPM

Victory! AMA Removes Offensive Social Media Post (Robert Scott Steinberg, DPM)

Dr. Steinberg asks what our APMA has done to put
money back in members’ pockets. In addition to
defending our members’ reputations from scurrilous
attacks that could have a legitimate impact on
their patient volume, our 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 our APMA and others 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. In addition, 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 alone has saved members
hundreds of millions of dollars. These savings have
easily covered the cost of APMA dues and more.
Just last week, our 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. Our 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, our
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 should be coming out next month.

Our APMA also provides outstanding tools to support
your practice in saving money. Our APMA Business
Mastercard offers 5% cashback on medical supplies
and equipment and 2.25% cashback 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, our 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.

So, in short, the answer is that our 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.
Lawrence A. Santi, DPM, APMA President

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