Flashback Friday: Optimal Team Practice

Can you believe it’s been nearly five months since AAPA’s House of Delegates approved new AAPA policy, often referred to as Optimal Team Practice?

Maybe you didn’t hear about it in May, so we’re using “Flashback Friday” to revisit this new policy, which will make a profound difference in expanding access to care and aligning the PA profession to meet modern healthcare needs.

While emphasizing PAs’ commitment to team-based care, Optimal Team Practice, when enacted into federal and state laws and regulations, will also…

• Eliminate the legal requirement for PAs to have a specific relationship with a physician in order to practice;
• Authorize PAs to be directly reimbursed by all public and private insurers; and
• Create autonomous majority-PA boards to regulate PAs, or give that authority to healing arts or medical boards that have as members both PAs and physicians who practice with PAs.

For those state PA chapters that decide to pursue Optimal Team Practice, AAPA will be at their side. In fact, several state chapters have already self-identified as wanting to be among the first to implement the new policy.

If you want to learn more about the new policy, or check out some of the tools and resources AAPA created to help implement the policy into state laws and regulations, visit aapa.org/otp.

And keep checking back because there will be more tools to come! As always, feel free to contact [email protected].