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Today's podiatrist has the necessary education and training to treat all conditions of the foot and ankle and plays a key role in keeping America healthy and mobile while helping combat diabetes and other chronic diseases.
Your feet are excellent barometers for your overall health. Healthy feet keep you moving and active. They are quite literally your foundation. In this section, learn more about APMA Seal-approved and accepted products, proper foot care, common foot and ankle conditions, and how your podiatrist can help keep you and your feet healthy.
APMA is the only organization lobbying for podiatrists and their patients on Capitol Hill. As the voice of podiatric medicine to your legislators and regulators, APMA is active on a variety of critical issues affecting podiatry and the entire health-care system.
The American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) requests you cosponsor the Helping Ensure Life- and Limb-Saving Access to Podiatric Physicians (HELLPP) Act, soon to be introduced by US Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Bill Johnson (R-OH) in the House and US Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and US Senator Todd Young (R-IN) in the Senate.
Problem
The current Medicaid (Title XIX) statute covers physician services, including in most cases medical and surgical care of the foot and ankle. However, the definition of a physician is limited to care provided by a medical doctor (MD) or doctor of osteopathy (DO) as defined in 1861(r)(1) of the Social Security Act (SSA).
Services provided by a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM) are considered optional, despite the fact that podiatric physicians are educated, trained, and licensed to perform the same foot and ankle care services as MDs and DOs. Doctors of podiatric medicine have been defined in the Medicare statute [1861(r)(3), SSA] as physicians for more than 40 years and are covered as providers in nearly all other federal health programs, including TRICARE, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and the Indian Health Service.
Background
Essential medical and surgical foot and ankle care is covered as a benefit by Medicaid programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, but it is not always covered when provided by a doctor of podiatric medicine. Current law effectively limits Medicaid beneficiaries’ access to the quality, cost-effective services provided by podiatrists and discriminates against the type of licensed medical professional Medicaid patients might see for foot and ankle care.
The Helping Ensure Life- and Limb-Saving Access to Podiatric Physicians (HELLPP) Act would save lives, limbs, and money for the Medicaid program—for both states and the federal government. A higher-than-average percentage of Medicaid beneficiaries are at risk for diabetes and related lower limb complications.
Thomson Reuters, which provides industry expertise and critical information to decision makers in financial, legal, tax and accounting, and health-care areas, conducted a three-year study that arrived at, among others, the following conclusions:
Patients with diabetes in the general population seen by a podiatrist prior to a foot ulcer diagnosis had a 20-percent lower risk of amputation and a 26-percent lower risk of hospitalization than those not seen by a podiatrist
Medicare-eligible patients with diabetes seen by a podiatrist had a 23-percent lower risk of amputation and a 9-percent lower risk of hospitalization compared with those not seen by a podiatrist
For the general population, each dollar invested in care by a podiatrist results in up to $51 of savings
For the Medicare-eligible population, each dollar invested in care by a podiatrist results in up to $13 of savings.
Treatment costs for diabetic foot ulcers range between $7,439 and $20,622 per episode. Estimated costs for a limb amputation are $70,434, and can cost as much as $500,000 over a lifetime. The potential and very significant cost savings of ensuring access to podiatric physicians in all sectors of the health care system—including Medicaid—cannot be disregarded.
Strong Bipartisan and Outside Support
Removing barriers for patient access to podiatric physicians has enjoyed strong bipartisan support in Congress, with bill language previously garnering 32 Senate cosponsors and 220 House cosponsors.
It was included in the Senate Finance Committee’s initial Chairman’s mark of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and as part of the US House-passed Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in 2009. It has also received past support from a diverse group of health-care stakeholders including the American Osteopathic Association and the American Public Health Association.
Cost
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provided an estimate of the Medicaid portion of the bill in 2009. The score was $200 million over 10 years but did not examine savings that would result from the avoidance of unnecessary hospitalization or prevention of lower-extremity amputations and assumed a greatly expanded Medicaid-eligible population. In 2014, CBO issued an updated score of the Medicaid and Medicare provisions, dramatically inflating its estimate to $1.3 billion over 10 years. This estimate must be revisited because CBO mistakenly interpreted both provisions to be expansions of existing programs.
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