Legislative Update January 2008

2007 was an exciting year for federal legislative issues in New Mexico. In May, five PTs from the New Mexico Chapter including Kim Parker-Guerrero, PT, NMAPTA President, Pat Bartels, PT, OCS, Legislative Chair, Beth Black, PT, Chief Delegate, David Kennedy, PT, OCS, Delegate and I joined 550 other PTs from all the states in the union including Puerto Rico at the Advocacy Academy and PT Day on Capitol Hill May 22-24^th in Washington, D.C. We learned ways to improve advocacy skills and promote physical therapist issues to members of congress. We were able to meet with Senator Domenici and Representative Heather Wilson as well as Legislative Assistants for Senator Jeff Bingaman, Representatives Tom Udall and Steve Pearce.

We focused on three main issues: removing therapy caps on outpatient physical therapy services, the importance of debt repayment for physical therapy students choosing to practice in underserved areas, and the benefits of direct access to physical therapist services. We were successful in securing the co-sponsorship of Senators Bingaman and Domenici on repealing the Medicare therapy cap.

Many of those attending Advocacy Academy including Beth Black, PT and David Kennedy, PT were also in Washington, DC for the APTA House of Delegates meeting, in which members set APTA policy.

In December, Congress signed the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (S 2499) which contains several provisions important to physical therapists and their patients, including:

• Extension of the therapy cap exceptions process through June 30, 2008.
• Increase in the physician payment rate and extension of the physician quality reporting initiative (PQRI).  Replaces the scheduled 10.1% cut to the Medicare physician reimbursement rate in 2008 with a 0.5% increase through June 30, 2008.
• Extension of the floor on work geographic adjustment. Extends the work geographic index (GPCI) floor of 1.0 through June 30, 2008.
• Payments for inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) services. Permanently freezes the IRF services compliance threshold at 60%. Sets the market basket update factor at 0% from April 1, 2008, through FY09.
• Reauthorization of SCHIP to March 2009.

     President Bush is expected to sign this bill in January 2008.

Key Contacts: I am in the process of identifying a new Key Contact for Representative Tom Udall in the 3^rd Congressional District. This individual will be responsible for contacting the Congressman or his Health Legislative Assistant in Washington, DC regarding the most pressing federal issues impacting PTs to urge his co-sponsor support. If anyone has an established relationship with Congressman Udall or lives in his district and would like to be a Key Contact, please let me know.

State Issues

      State Legislative Session 2007:

• The gross receipts tax bill passed to allow PTs to have the same deduction on Medicare receipts that physicians have been getting. This was effective July 1, 2007. Our Lobbyist Bryan Ortiz was instrumental in the passage of this bill and we are fortunate to have him advocating for us at the state level.         
• Scope of Practice -Currently, the State statute gives the legislature the power to make changes in the professional practice acts but it appears that many of the legislators do not feel adequately informed to make these decisions. This year a memorial was passed to bring health professionals together to discuss how to improve the process of changing state practice acts. However, the memorial was heavily amended by Rep. Gardner and now the Interim Health and Human Services Committee has the task of looking at the issue and making recommendations to the legislature.  Since this next session is a 30 day session and more fiscally related issues will be the focus -Bryan does not feel that we need to take action on this issue this time around.
• The Three-tiered salary structure for support providers in the public schools bill will not be introduced in the 2008 session. This may be due in part to the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) having adjusted support provider salaries this year for recruitment and retention purposes. Other districts in the state outside of APS may not have the financial resources to make this adjustment without state funding and it will still be necessary to continue to follow this issue and possibly re-introduce it in the legislature next year.  

·         New Mexico hosted a record 140 APTA members at the State Government Affairs Forum (SGAF) September 23-25, 2007 at the Sheraton Uptown Hotel in Albuquerque. This year's forum featured a variety of informational and strategy sessions on topics including Medicaid and SCHIP, grassroots advocacy and fundraising, referral-for-profit efforts, and effective communication with lawmakers and the media, among others. Speakers for this event included State Representative Danice Picraux and State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino as well as many APTA Board Members. Pat Bartels, PT, was one of the PTs honored nationally with a State Legislative Leadership Award. The NMAPTA also hosted a social event which featured a performance by Albuquerque's own Baila! Baila! Folklorica Dancers. (Pictured above).

·         Licensing Board Issues

A Rules Hearing was held on November 30^th, 2007 at which several important rules were adopted including reinstatement of the 20 hr CEU carryover. The Licensing Board website has a listing of the adopted rules changes, which will go into effect January 3rd (30 days after posting).

• Licensing Board Meetings: We will continue to have a NMAPTA representative attending these meetings regularly to be able to keep us up to date on relevant issues and advocate as needed.
• Licensing Board Personnel: Robert Romero, PT has been appointed to New Mexico Physical Therapy Licensing Board. Al Cota has also been appointed to the Licensing Board as a Public Member. Licensing Board Administrator, Justin Clark has resigned but Liz Montoya will be acting Administrator and Vera will be her Assistant.   

        Exciting News! Legislative Committee member Liz Thompson, PT has been appointed to the State Developmental Disability Planning Council and Robert Romero, PT has been appointed to the State Medicaid Task Force.  It is important for physical therapists to have more professional visibility and these appointments give our profession an opportunity to make an impact at the state level.

**Please be on the lookout for state legislative updates soon from our new Legislative Committee member Gretchen Johnson, PT and be prepared to help us advocate for our patients and our profession on important state legislative issues.

Lastly, a sincere THANK YOU!!!  Pat Bartels, PT for six years of dedicated service on the NMAPTA Legislative Committee. We have been very fortunate to have her as anadvocate for our profession and as a mentor on this committee. Thankfully, she has agreed to serve as an ad hoc member...

For questions or comments on any legislative issues, please contact me at sahreeml@yahoo.com.

Sahreem Luergan, PT

NMAPTA Legislative Committee Chair