Emphasizing Legislative Activity And Passage Of The VA Provider Equity Act

The American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) House of Delegates took place in Washington, DC last week. It was my sixth House of Delegates and it was the most cooperative, united meeting I have seen. Many important discussions and subsequent actions occurred regarding such subjects as student recruitment, the much-anticipated governance and management review, the pathway to parity and legislative advocacy.

Additionally, elections took place for APMA leadership. R. Daniel Davis, DPM, became the 90th President of APMA. Phil Ward, DPM, ended his term as President and is now Immediate Past President. Much of the harmony at the House of Delegates was a direct reflection of Phil’s unifying tenure as President. Ira Kraus, DPM, President-Elect, Dennis Frisch, DPM, Vice President, and Dave Edwards, DPM, Treasurer will serve as APMA Executive Officers along with James Christina, DPM, Executive Director and CEO. Laura Pickard, DPM, and Sylvia Virbulis, DPM, were re-elected as incumbent members of the Board of Trustees. Finally, I would also like to congratulate David Yeager, DPM, as the newest member of the Board of Trustees.

I have entered my second year on the board and have been assigned by President Davis to chair the legislative committee. Chairing this committee is an enormous responsibility and I look forward to the challenge. Advocacy is the number one strategic goal for APMA. Federal governmental advocacy toward parity corresponds to the Pathway to Parity and Vision 2015 initiatives that our profession has earned. The multipronged legislative approach APMA has developed and implemented under previous Legislative Chair Seth Rubenstein, DPM, and the APMA staff continues to move the profession toward the ultimate goal of legislative parity.

After assuming this new position with the APMA’s legislative committee, I interviewed several key stakeholders regarding our legislative approach and put together an action plan to build upon our significant accomplishments to date. I plan on using this space to engage with my readers to move our journey toward parity further down the line to our ultimate goal. Every consultant and lobbyist that APMA has worked with over the years has always stressed the importance of grassroots membership involvement. Your grassroots involvement is critical to our success. I ask of you to not only help yourself but pay it forward to future podiatrists who will follow in your footsteps.

My request centers on the VA Provider Equity Act (HR 3016/S 2175). This bill will recognize podiatric physicians in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as physicians along with allopathic/osteopathic physicians and dentists. Our colleagues serving our veterans deserve the same opportunities as other physicians within the VHA system. Our veterans deserve the best lower extremity healthcare possible. The recruitment and retention hurdles caused by the current status of podiatric physicians within the VHA system are rectified with this bill. HR 3016 passed the House of Representatives on February 9 and is now pending a vote in the Senate. Passage of this bill is also another step on the pathway to parity.

We must take the grassroots involvement to another level to accomplish our goal. I am asking every APMA member reading this blog to go to the APMA eAdvocacy site (https://apmaeadvocacy.org/ ) to send an email to your Senators asking them to cosponsor S 2175. This takes less than a couple of minutes. Please do it now and then ask your colleagues to do it. My goals are to keep you informed and help build a coalition to accomplish the goal of parity. Will you join me in bringing our goal to reality?