The PA Foundation Reception

The PA Foundation Reception

Updated on: 07/04/2016

A few months ago I was asked to speak at the PA Foundation’s Donor Recognition Breakfast at the 2016 AAPA Conference, which I was eager to accept especially after all that they had done for me in the preceding months. [Insert: I was previously accepted as one of the 18 recipients and the 2015 Bristol-Myers Squibb Endowed Scholarship Recipient]. More on Bristol Myers Squibb here.

I don’t say, ‘Thank You’ often enough for the hard work others put in, but it is definitely deserved. So, ‘thank you’ to everyone at AAPA and the PA Foundation who work tirelessly to ensure that students like myself can achieve their dreams of becoming a PA on top of making other milestones for our profession. Special thanks to Caroline Pierce and Key Ideas for working on my ‘impromptu nonsense of a speech’ and creating this incredible video to promote the PA Foundation Scholarships for future PA students.

Sustainable Growth Rate Legislation AKA "The Doc Fix"

Sustainable Growth Rate Legislation AKA "The Doc Fix"

As a preface, the SGR has been an ongoing problem for providers serving Medicare patients and their beneficiaries. In the past, a "doc fix" has been applied to prevent massive Medicare reimbursement rate cuts, which ultimately would end up in fewer physicians available to treat Medicare patients. Congress is attempting to pass a comprehensive bill that will "fix" the problem (one that rewards quantity of services rather than quality of care) rather than doing an annual patch, which has been the practice for the last ten years.

This is a huge deal for our profession, but also the future of healthcare. Many professional PAs believe that this bill could make or break the profession, which is why it is so important that you are active in pursuing its passage. The SGR bills were both recently passed out of the House and Senate committees and will move to the floor of both chambers sometime in the first few months of 2014. AAPA has been HEAVILY engaged in the development of the bills, as well as some of the amendments which were included in the bills. PAs in the states of the relevant senators have been interviewed and have conveyed personal stories to their senators to help garner support.

Once AAPA finds out early this year what the next steps are for the SGR legislation, they will put out a call to action to AAPA members asking for their support and for them to contact members of Congress to ask them to support these PA provisions. PAFT (PAs for Tomorrow) and their many members are the best advocates they have for the profession. Additionally, other healthcare organizations with aligned interests and Congress are working with them directly on this matter.

What You Need to Know:

2013 AAPA Salary Report Review

The 2013 American Academy of Physician Assistants Salary Report, A Review

It's important to stay updated on the salary of a PA, specifically PAs in the field you plan to go into. This can have positive or negative effects on your future and could eventually enable you to single out the speciality, subspecialty, or practice setting you choose for yourself. This salary report also helps PAs ready to go into practice negotiate the best compensation package, hourly rates, salary rate, bonus packages, productivity measures, and benefits packages available. But this salary report isn't all about salary, it also talks about schools, coursework, and other information about becoming a PA you might find useful along your journey. Remember, this is just a review, so I'll just highlight a few that I think are cool and important, but if you want to see more, you'll need to purchase a membership. Lets get started!

The first part of the Salary Report is on PA Facts - this is basic information not regarding salary you might find useful.

Table 1. Table featured in AAPA Annual Survey 2013. This
particular table features the area of medicine and surgery
PAs work in by percentage. 

1. The average PA program takes 26 months to complete; nearly all award master's degrees
2. 93,000 certified PAs work in every medical and surgical setting across the country
1. 37.5% practice in a hospital setting
2. 38.1% work in a  group practice or solo physician office
3. 24.4% work in community health centers, freestanding surgical facilities, nursing homes, school or college based facilities, industrial settings, or correctional institutions
3. Each year, a PA treats around 3,500 patients
4. A PA writes approximately 2,600-5,200 prescriptions each year. [That's about 50-100/week!]

Salary Report

This report was collected by a voluntary survey released online to AAPA members and non-members between March-July 2013. An astonishing 18,000 PAs responded, reporting valuable information about those working more than 32 hours/week for their primary clinical employer. The information is also presented in such a way that divides PAs into two categories: PAs with a base salary only and PAs with bonuses in addition to their base salary.