Advocacy in Action: Building on 2024 Successes
January 15, 2025
By Chantell Taylor
It’s a new year, and the progress made in 2024 is continuing in states across the country and on the federal level for many advocacy priorities.
During my first year as AAPA’s Chief of Public Affairs and Advocacy, I have worked with the Advocacy team to consider new and improved ways to better inform our members (and non-members) about the extensive ways in which we advocate for the PA profession every day. That is why we are kicking off this recurring advocacy-dedicated update to share the latest developments in federal and state advocacy.
Looking back at 2024, we have many accomplishments to celebrate. Here are just a few highlights from each of our teams:
- Reimbursement & Professional Advocacy: In addition to dozens of comment letters, outreach meetings, presentations and production of professional resources, our reimbursement team published an award-winning article, Medical Malpractice Payment Reports of Physician Assistants/Associates Related to State Practice Laws and Regulations. The Reimbursement team also published a two-part series on PA leadership in healthcare and successfully advocated for expansion of Medicaid authorization for PAs to be “rendering providers” in Arkansas and New Jersey, bringing the total Medicaid programs to 49 states and DC.
- Federal Advocacy: Our efforts on the federal workers’ compensation bill led to significant progress, with the legislation passing unanimously through the House Education and Workforce Committee and with strong support in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee – setting us up for success in the next Congress.
- State Advocacy: Oregon was the first state to achieve statutory title change; 10 states passed state compact legislation, triggering official operationalization; and over a dozen states passed practice modernization laws including New Hampshire, which eliminated the requirement for PAs to have collaboration agreements with physicians. None of these wins would have been possible without the incredible activism of our state COs!
Big Plans for 2025
Looking ahead, we have ambitious plans to continue this progress and will be looking to engage each of you to advance these goals:
- All 50 states are scheduled for regular session in 2025. At least 14 states plan to introduce practice modernization legislation; five states are planning to introduce title change legislation; and 15 states are pursuing state compact.
- The reimbursement team is ramping up efforts to increase engagement with commercial payers to advocate for equitable reimbursement policies for PAs and introducing new on-demand CME content.
- The 119th Congress began on Friday, January 3, and the new Presidential administration will begin on January 20. The federal team is working with our legislative champions on the reintroduction of AAPA’s priority legislation and building relationships with the new administration, committee leaders and members of Congress.
Immediate Priorities
Taking on title change! When the HOD took bold action in 2021 to adopt title change, AAPA embraced the decision and blazed a path forward by changing the official name of our organization, updating assets, and providing resources to COs. We continue to update those resources to support COs with support COs with both organizational name change and legislative efforts. Of the 126 affiliated COs, 21 have fully embraced the new title by changing assistant to associate in their name and updating their organizational documents, website and external-facing assets with “physician associate” as much as possible. This count also includes organizations currently using the term “PA” in their organization name who update their assets.
As we continue to press on with efforts to secure legislative change, we urge COs who have not adopted “physician associate” within their organization to do so this year! The AAPA board and our staff are standing by to help! Let us know how we can support you and let’s see how close we can get to 100% unity by the time we see each other for conference in Denver this May.
Get engaged!
The AAPA advocacy team is dedicated to representing the PA profession, but we are only as strong as the collective voice of our membership. If you haven’t already, make sure you get connected with us! Here are some ways to get involved:
- Join AAPA’s Grassroots Advocacy and Information Network (GAIN), a nationwide network of PAs who are strengthening the future of the profession by building relationships with state and federal elected leaders.
- Share your ideas, accomplishments, challenges, and other advocacy stories with our PA community on AAPA’s Huddle.
- Attend our annual Membership Meeting to engage with AAPA leaders. Not a member? Join today!
- Email us at [email protected].
Together, we can build on the successes of last year and continue the momentum to make this our best year yet for our patients and the PA profession.
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