Doctors of Podiatric Medicine: Saving Lives, Saving Limbs, Saving Health-Care Dollars

The average person walks 100,000 miles in a lifetime.

That’s a lot of wear and tear on our feet and ankles, the unique body parts that keep America moving, active, and productive at our jobs. Doctors of podiatric medicine (DPMs) are physicians and surgeons at the forefront of delivering specialized foot and ankle care. However, not everyone is able to receive that care. Passage of the Helping Ensure Life- and Limb-Saving Access to Podiatric Physicians (HELLPP) Act will change that.

Each and every day, podiatrists keep America walking by preventing higher cost critical outcomes like hospitalizations and amputations. In fact, the inclusion of care provided by podiatrists for those with diabetes alone will save our health-care system as much as $3.5 billion per year. A more recent study shows a tremendous impact from removing podiatric services from Medicaid in the state of Arizona. It is simply common sense to allow all patients access to the group of doctors who already perform the majority of foot and ankle care in the US.

Members of Congress are already cosponsoring this important legislation. The HELLPP Act has been endorsed by a diverse group of health-care stakeholder and patient-representative groups. If you are an APMA member, use our eAdvocacy site to contact your elected officials today.

Six Reasons to Support The HELLPP Act

• Podiatrists are the best qualified medical professionals to treat the foot and ankle
• Podiatrists are essential to the treatment of patients with diabetes
• The HELLPP Act will grant Medicaid patients the freedom to choose their preferred foot and ankle care provider
• The HELLPP Act will improve the Medicare diabetic shoe program
• The HELLPP Act will save the American health-care system money
• The HELLPP Act will strengthen Medicaid program integrity and reduce the federal budget deficit

What is The HELLPP Act?

The Helping Ensure Life- and Limb-Saving Access to Podiatric Physicians (HELLPP) Act includes multiple comprehensive reforms and goes further to ensure podiatric physicians will continue to save lives, limbs, and health-care dollars.

The HELLPP Act would accomplish three important goals:

• Recognize podiatrists as physicians under Medicaid—A chief goal of APMA's Vision for the 21st Century, recognizing podiatrists as physicians, would finally bring Medicaid into line with Medicare (and a majority of US health-care delivery systems) and ensure Medicaid patients have access to care by the best educated and trained providers of foot and ankle care.
• Clarify and improve coordination of care in Medicare's Therapeutic Shoe Program for Patients with Diabetes—The current process and Medicare contractor requirements for determining eligibility for Medicare’s Therapeutic Shoe Program for Patients with Diabetes, and for furnishing this medically necessary benefit, are unnecessarily burdensome and frequently bogged down, leading to frustration on the part of the certifying physician, prescribing doctor, and supplier. These clarifications would allow each member of the collaborative team—MD/DO, DPM, and supplier—to work together more effectively and seamlessly on behalf of diabetic patients, resulting in less patient confusion, less provider frustration, and fewer office visits for the Medicare system.
• Strengthen Medicaid program integrity—By closing a loophole that allows tax-delinquent Medicaid providers to still receive full Medicaid reimbursements, this provision will save the Medicaid system money and more than offset any additional federal budget costs associated with the inclusion of podiatrists. Such a mechanism already exists in Medicare and could potentially save billions of dollars for the public health-care system.

 Download the issue/policy brief: 2024 HELLPP Act Hill Packet (PDF)