APTA member Sue Ann Sisto, PT, MA, PhD, FACRM, recently was named a Fellow of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM). ACRM is the world's leading interdisciplinary rehabilitation research organization. The Fellow of ACRM designation recognizes individuals who make significant contributions to the field of rehabilitation and to ACRM for at least 5 consecutive years, have an outstanding record of professional service, and have a sustained record of contributions of national significance to medical rehabilitation in the areas of clinical practice, research, education, and administration. Sisto has been a member of ACRM since 1998 and served on numerous committees over the years. Her greatest contribution was the development of the SCI networking group, which she was instrumental in elevating to ACRM’s SCI special interest group (SIG) in 2009. She has served on the Board of Governors as member at large, secretary, vice president and now president-elect. Sisto is the first physical therapist to receive the ACRM Fellow designation. 

Sisto is professor of physical therapy and director of research in rehabilitation sciences at Stony Brook University. She has been a physical therapist for more than 32 years and specializes in pathokinesiology. Her doctoral studies at New York University were funded by grants from the National Institute on
Disability and Rehabilitation Research and the Foundation for Physical Therapy.

Her current research direction is recovery of locomotion in spinal cord injury (SCI), but her grants and publications span broad areas of rehabilitation outcomes with neurological/orthopedic patients. Sisto has served on multiple grant review panels and is the associate editor for the Journal of Spinal Cord Injury Medicine. Her textbook on SCI rehabilitation was published in 2009. Sisto has served on various National Institutes of Health review committees and is chair of the Rehabilitation Advisory Board grant review panel for Shriners Hospital for Children. She has served on APTA's Scientific Review Committee and the Nomination Committee and currently is vice chair of the Neurology Section’s Spinal Cord Injury SIG.

Preventive services for obesity now will be included under Medicare and can be provided by primary care physicians or primary care practitioners only (nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, or physician assistants) in primary care settings only.

Under the regulations, announced on Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, physical therapists do not currently fit all the requirements to provide obesity intensive preventive therapies, which include:

1. Screening for obesity in adults (BMI measurement; BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2);
2. Dietary (nutritional) assessment; and
3. Intensive behavioral counseling and behavioral therapy through high-intensity interventions, including diet and exercise. 

Additionally, any behavioral intensity therapy should meet the 5-A framework recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force:

1. Assess: Ask about/assess behavioral health risk(s) and factors affecting choice of behavior change goals/methods.
2. Advise: Give clear, specific, and personalized behavior change advice, including information about personal health harms and benefits.
3. Agree: Collaboratively select appropriate treatment goals and methods based on the patient's interest in and willingness to change the behavior.
4. Assist: Using behavior change techniques (self-help and/or counseling), aid the patient in achieving agreed-upon goals by acquiring the skills, confidence, and social/environmental supports for behavior change, supplemented with adjunctive medical treatments when appropriate.
5. Arrange: Schedule follow-up contacts (in person or by telephone) to provide ongoing assistance/support and to adjust the treatment plan as needed, including referral to more intensive or specialized treatment.

Primary care physicians in non-primary care settings are not precluded from conducting an obesity screening, then referring the patient to a primary care setting for further obesity therapy to be conducted by the primary care physician or primary care practitioner.

APTA is gathering the necessary supportive data to demonstrate the value of physical therapy interventions in reducing obesity and to advocate for inclusion of physical therapists in obesity prevention.

With the failure of the Super Committee to produce a deficit reduction package, sequestration will trigger cuts across all federal departments, including Medicare and other health programs, in January 2013. While congressional authorizing language protects Medicaid from cuts, 2% in savings will come from reductions in provider payments under Medicare. 

APTA viewed a Super Committee package as a possible vehicle for resolution to the therapy caps. In the absence of a package, the association's efforts now turn to the more traditional method of extending the therapy cap exceptions process. APTA anticipates that the congressional health writing committees now will begin to craft a year-end Medicare package that will address both the expiring sustainable growth rate (SGR) and Medicare extenders provisions, including the therapy cap exceptions process. 

Given a large portfolio of unfinished congressional business, it is imperative for APTA members to advocate for an exceptions process extension prior to the December 31 deadline. APTA will soon call on its grassroots network to help lead the way in this effort. If you're not a member of PTeam, sign up today to receive action alerts on this and other federal legislative issues. PTeam members also receive a quarterly newsletter on legislative activity on Capitol Hill.

In the coming months, APTA also will monitor efforts to prevent sequestration from being implemented in 2013. In the wake of the Super Committee announcement, calls for congressional action to prevent sequestration from occurring have been heard on Capitol Hill. APTA will continue to analyze these proposals and advocate for the profession as this process moves forward.

A health literacy resource from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides a detailed and comprehensive set of tools to help health care providers write material that is easy to read, understand, and use. The 11-part toolkit is focused on creating written material intended for use by people eligible for or enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children's Health Insurance Program—and by people who serve or assist them, such as family members and friends, outreach workers, agency staff, community organizations, and caregivers.  

DJO Global Inc recently joined the Foundation for Physical Therapy's Partner in Research program as a Platinum Level Partner, with a donation of $25,000. The Partners in Research program recognizes corporate donors and sponsorships that support the Foundation's mission to provide doctoral scholarships, fellowships, and research grants to emerging physical therapist researchers.

Dale Hammer, PT, MA, MHSA, senior vice president of global compliance and government relations at DJO Global announced the gift at a Foundation research luncheon held during the Private Practice Section's Annual Conference in Seattle earlier this month.