May 29, 2025 • 23 mins
The APTA Nebraska podcast discusses recent graduates, state advocacy, and prosthetics initiatives while providing important timeline updates for members and highlighting opportunities for engagement.
• Congratulations to 2025 PT and PTA graduates, with reminders about patience during the four-week licensure process
• Announcement of an All-District meeting featuring House of Delegates information and legislative session updates
• Interview with Vince Lau about "So Every Body Can Move" initiative seeking insurance coverage for activity-specific prosthetic devices
• Details on LB410 (Insurance Fairness Act) with fiscal impact of only 1-12¢ per member monthly but potential savings of $68 million
• Upcoming events including Running Blade Clinic (June 21st) and Blade 5K (July 12th) at College of St. Mary
• Updates on Medicare rules for 2026 with limited clarity on Medicare Advantage plans
• Early bird deadlines for specialist certifications: July 1st for cardiovascular, pulmonary, electrophysiology, oncology, women's health, wound management; July 31st for geriatric, neurologic, orthopedic, pediatric, sports
• APTA member deals including 25% off car rentals and 65% off UPS shipping
Nebraska APTA House of Delegates Town Hall Meeting Link:
Passcode: 8J%&mc95
Vince Lau and Limb Lab Information:
- Contact
- Information Links
- https://soeverybodycanmove.org/ [soeverybodycanmove.org]
- Become an advocate: https://p2a.co/ASKIfhc [p2a.co]
- LB410: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/view_bill.php?DocumentID=59036 [nebraskalegislature.gov]
- Levitate Clinic:
physical therapy, optimizing thehealth and quality of life for
all Nebraskans.
Join us as we connect withexperts, share insights and
(00:22):
build communities throughout ourprofession.
Connect with experts, shareinsights and build communities
throughout our profession.
Hey, welcome back to the APTANebraska podcast.
This is Brad, and I have Nickwith me today.
Hey, nick, hey, how we doing?
Thanks for having me back.
Yeah, it's good to kind of runit back again.
Hey, first and foremost, weneed to congratulate all of our
(00:49):
2025 PT and PTA graduates.
Right, and this is where Iwould insert the applause if I
had the capabilities to do that.
So, if you're listening, justimagine that applause in the
background.
Okay?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, if I can too, I want to also express my
congratulations to all thosethat have worked really hard.
I know this is a fun time andyou have wrapped up your
schooling and hopefully there'sa career plan already in place.
And I know even recently wefound out results of the April
licensure exam, so I'm sure alot of people are celebrating
(01:17):
that here just in the lastcouple of weeks as well.
It's a lot to be proud of andagain we want to just express
our congratulations.
Brad, as you probably rememberback to that time of life too I
do.
I can still remember where Iwas when I opened up my
licensure exam score and foundout I passed right.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I emailed like the night that I took my test and I
got a score back the next dayfrom a state.
It was great.
This is before having like thestandardized testing dates
though.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So it's a.
It's a very memorable time andand worth taking just a minute
to reflect on all the all thework put in to get to that point
.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Truly you've, you've made it and now you can.
You can actually get out intothe working world.
It's a phenomenal thing.
So maybe along those lines,anything you want to say about
the licensure process.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah.
So, as you move forward, ifyou're going to get licensed
here in Nebraska which we hopeyou do, definitely, you know,
make sure I know this is it's aprocess that does take some time
.
And while you think, hey, Igraduated, I passed my licensure
exam, I wanna just jump intopractice.
Unfortunately, it's not alwaysthat easy.
There is a little bit of adelay to just getting the
(02:31):
licensing processed.
So I guess my first point isjust be patient.
It probably takes, on average,about four weeks, and I really
want to encourage you that, asyou fill out the application,
really be diligent and make surethat you have everything it's
asking for, as a lot of youapply for licensure at the same
time and the state goes throughthat process.
(02:53):
If you're missing any documents, they're just going to put your
application at the bottom ofthe pile and they may not even
notify you until they get aminute to do so, and that could
be a few weeks.
And then, of course, you wouldneed to resubmit those documents
and get that done.
So really be thoughtful andfill that out, be careful and
make sure you have everything inthere, just to make it go as
(03:14):
fast as you can.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Love it.
Hey, let's kind of shift gearstoward what's happening in the
state.
Right now, there's an alldistrict meeting that's coming
up here yet this month.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, so in May here we're going to have an all
district meeting that's going toinclude kind of an idea.
We're going to meet with BobbyGreasy, gail Jensen, maybe Kate
Kugler, some of those that willbe participating in House of
Delegates, and the plan is forthem to just kind of highlight
what will be going on this year.
We will record that session.
So if you're not able to attend, we'll have the recording for
(03:47):
you and maybe can even link itto this podcast for you.
But yeah, please check that out.
If you have any questions inadvance, we'd love to hear from
you.
But it should be a nice kind ofoverview of everything that is
going on in regards to House ofDelegates.
And then we're also going tokind of wrap up with just some
(04:10):
information about the Nebraskalegislative session is coming to
an end here really quickly, sowe'll kind of wrap up where we
are in that process as well, andso, again, you can find that in
the recording if you are unableto attend.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, like Nick said we'll have, there should be a
link down in the show notes foryou to connect directly to that
on the APTA Nebraska website.
Hey, nick, I was previouslymade aware of another advocacy
opportunity that our memberscould be engaged with.
Vince Lau, who's a friend ofour organization, agreed to hop
(04:41):
on to the podcast and share alittle bit more about some of
the efforts that he has going on.
That would really fit along ourpractice lines as well.
So, vince, welcome to thepodcast.
And hey, would you mind sharinga little bit about yourself
with our audience?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, yeah, glad to be here.
I'm Vince Lau.
I'm a certified prosthetist,orthotist, I am working in Lim
Lab and I am the market leaderfor our Omaha office.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Hey, thanks.
So you were telling me a littlebit about this effort called so
Every Body Can Move right.
Can you share with our memberswhat that is?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, so this is a national grassroots advocacy
initiative that is going on inthe field of orthotics and
prosthetics.
We have two main tenets for soEverybody Can Move.
The first is that movement ismedicine and the second is that
physical activity is a right,not a privilege.
I think this is something thatyou guys, as physical therapists
(05:46):
, can really agree upon, andthis is where we really meet in
the middle.
This initiative, so EverybodyCan Move, it started in 2022.
Initially it was called so KidsCan Move, and then we realized
that there's no need to justhave it be focused on kids and
we want to open it up to theentire population.
(06:07):
So it was expanded to so everybody can move and to include all
ages.
Our main goal really with thisinitiative is to improve access
to prosthetic and orthoticdevices for any physical
activity sports or exercisesthat most insurances typically
deem as not medically necessaryor exercises that most
(06:29):
insurances typically deem as notmedically necessary.
Since 2022, we've had severalstates join the overall kind of
coalition and our main goal, aswe've been saying, it is 28 by
28, where we'll have 28 statesby 2028, having passed some sort
of legislation that followskind of our model, and then we
(06:50):
can use the 2028 Paralympicshere in LA as our platform to
push for federal reform.
This is something that'sactually been seen in like, most
recently in France last year.
They actually use theParalympics to kind of improve
their legislation and theircoverage of these devices.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Okay, what's the background on this?
How did it really get going?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah.
So there's kind of a lot ofinformation that has come
together that we use to kind ofdescribe why we think movement
is important.
The main thing that we look atis the Department of Health and
Human Services.
They recommend that childrenget 60 minutes of daily activity
and adults get 150 minutesweekly activity, preferably
(07:35):
vigorous.
And what's interesting is ifthat's for people who are
able-bodied.
If you look at theirrecommendations for those with
any sort of physicaldisabilities, the
recommendations are exactly thesame.
So DHS really wants everybodyto be active.
It doesn't matter what yourphysical ability is or not.
(07:56):
So we feel like that is astatement by a government
organization that kind ofjustifies why everybody should
have that activity, why it'simportant for them.
Studies show that people withdisability have a
disproportionately higher riskof decreased physical activity,
(08:18):
of obesity and chronicloneliness.
And then we also find that ourcurrent healthcare system is
biased towards those who arefull-bodied and not disabled.
So if you look at an ACL repairprobably one of the more common
elective procedures out thereit's usually covered by
(08:40):
insurance under the verbiagethat it is required to restore
the body to its full potential.
That it is required to restorethe body to its full potential.
Between 100,000 or 300,000 ACLprocedures are performed a year,
which costs a total of about$500 million just for ACLs, just
(09:02):
for an elective procedure.
So we thought, if healthcarecan justify and cover elective
procedures for ACLs, why not forprosthetic and orthotic devices
?
Yeah, and that's what kind ofled to this movement of.
Not only is movement medicineand it's important for those
(09:22):
patients that we specificallysee in our field, but anything
else like not allowing them,that is just discrimination of
physical ability.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah, I can just listen to you talk.
I can kind of think about thepotential impact here.
You know, increasing physicalactivity for some of the
patients that we're serving,allowing them to engage in
social activities or communities, being able to run, participate
in local gyms, right, Eventhings like water sports,
(09:52):
potential to wear devices and toshowers, Like there's a lot of
potential impacts from whatyou're talking about, right.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Exactly exactly.
Yeah, what you listed off is,you know, kind of the main
things that we point at andthings that are often overlooked
things that we point at andthings that are often overlooked
.
One of the things that we say,you know, when we're kind of
talking to people about this, isif you want to go running, all
you have to do is change yourshoes, but if somebody with a
prosthesis or an orthosis wantsto go running, they need a whole
new device specifically forthat.
(10:20):
And when we look at this, a lotof times this is going to be
more specific to your lowerextremity devices.
A lot of times, for an upperextremity device say, somebody
is missing their arm insurancewill sometimes cover more than
one device because theyunderstand that the prosthesis,
specifically upper extremity, isa tool for specific activities
(10:44):
and sometimes you need more thanone, but they won't cover more
than one leg, which we just seeas kind of ridiculous.
And then same, like you said,wearing a device in the shower.
That is something that isreally easy to overlook.
We see that person, we see themevery day, but you have to
think about their full days ofactivities and even have, you
(11:06):
know, young patients like I havea young gentleman who's 25
assigns amputees, so that meansthat ankle disarticulation
typically a weight bearing levelof amputation and he, he just
doesn't feel comfortable weightbearing in it.
He tried jumping in the showeronce and fell he's 25, yeah,
it's like, if he's falling nowat 25, what's?
(11:27):
going to happen 10, 20, 30 yearslater, this guy could have a
lot of potential.
We want to make sure that he'sgot that ability to, you know,
live his life safely and alsolive up to the activities he
wants to do.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So I understand you're really you're trying to
make this go right.
What kind of efforts do youhave going on right now?
What's the financial impact andwhat kind of collaboration are
you looking for?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah.
So, like I said, so everybodycan move is a nationwide effort.
Right now we have nine statesthat have passed bills and
legislation specific to theverbiage for activity, specific
stuff, and then Georgia any daynow, like literally any day,
we're waiting for the governorto sign that bill to be number
10.
Overall, there's about 40states that have advocacy teams.
(12:14):
That is growing.
We're working on getting all 50states involved.
Here in Nebraska for the lasttwo years I've been working to
get what's called the InsuranceFairness Act.
Typically this is kind of seenas bringing the bottom up before
we raise the ceiling, makingsure that any insurance policy,
primarily commercial, has tohave the same level of coverage
(12:38):
as Medicare, not fee schedulewise, but just if Medicare
covers this device, then thiscommercial plan will too.
So that's LB410 for this year.
Had introduced, had a reallygood hearing, nick, I really
appreciate you coming to thetestimony there or the hearing
and giving your testimony.
That was very much appreciatedand just showing the
(13:01):
collaboration that we have andwe'll get into more of that.
We're going to be coming backfor 2026, hopefully with our
full verbiage saying you knowwhat we're not just going to
fight for bringing the bottom up, we want to do all of it once,
and that's what we're doing now.
So it's going to requirecoverage of orthotic and
prosthetic devices for dailyactivities, meeting the
(13:31):
standards of Medicare, but alsoexpanding it to cover
activity-specific devices.
We'll focus on making sure thatwe have verbiage to describe
that a patient should have thefull functional return of
activities similar to anon-disabled person, just like I
said with the acl repairs.
And then, finally, we want tomake sure that we eliminate any
(13:53):
discriminatory policies thatexclude people with limb loss
and limb difference fromopportunities to maintain
physical health, independenceand economic productivity.
Each state is working on tojustifying this legislation.
When we go and talk to oursenators, we have to have a
(14:15):
discussion of the fiscal impact.
Specifically for Nebraska, theestimated per cost per member
increase is one to 12 cents amonth, which means at most yeah,
we're asking somebody to put ina dollar 44 a year, like I
don't even know what you can getfor a dollar 44 anymore in this
(14:37):
economy, so it should be afairly easy ask.
What's crazy is if we havethese people more active and
they're they're doing moreactivities, they're reducing
some of the effects of theircomorbidities and some of the
other healthcare issues theyhave.
(14:57):
We're estimating a totalreduced healthcare cost of about
$68 million, which is justdisproportionate to how much
more it's going to cost theindividual.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Seems like a good return on the investment right.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Exactly, and that's kind of our main thing that we
needed to really talk to whenwe're talking to the senators,
when we're talking to thelobbyists for the insurance
companies, is saying this isactually going to save you guys
money in the long run and help avery specific population.
But this is not something I cando alone.
For the last couple of years Iactually have been doing it
(15:34):
almost alone as the leadadvocate for Nebraska and what I
need is people who are willingto put in a little bit of time
to help join me.
So I do have someone else whohas joined me, another clinician
, dr Emily Stephenson.
She's a CPO, has her PhD inbiomechanics good friend of mine
(15:55):
, so we're part of.
She's now officially part of myteam.
If anybody else is interestedin joining.
We usually have a chat likeevery three weeks just to kind
of say hey, here's our goals,few things to work on and how we
move forward.
If anybody wants to join theteam.
I'll make sure that you guyshave a link for that.
Or if anybody just wants tostay in contact and hear what's
(16:17):
going on, I'll have a link forthat as well.
And just you know, you want tosee what people can do if they
are given access to devices likethese.
We have a few events coming up.
June 21st, Linlab and Levitateare co-hosting a running blade
clinic.
(16:37):
This is actually going to be atCollege of St Mary, where we're
going to have feet for amputeeswhere they can try them out and
see what it's like to run.
I could use some PTs to helpout with that, just to do some
basic gait training and alsospread the word to patients,
because this is open to anypatient.
(16:58):
They don't have to be anexisting limb lab patient, but
we want people to try stuff out.
We do have cool swag bags forour patient attendees.
So I'm getting sponsored by afew local groups, like Big Grove
Brewery.
They're going to be opening upin June and so they're
sponsoring us.
Then in July we have the Blade5K, so this is run by the
(17:20):
Amputee Wellness Alliance of theMidlands, or AWA.
That's July 12th, so come runin Omaha Once again at the
College of St Mary Fieldhouse soyou can come run with us.
That's raising money to providerunning blades for amputees.
Um, the that group is fullyaware that I am trying to make
(17:40):
their non-profit non-existentthrough changed legislation and
they're all for it.
And then finally in october forthe nebraska market to.
We're actually trying to make aall amputee team and if you
have any active amputees, sendthem our way.
Really, just shoot me an email.
Make sure that, brad, you canput that in the show notes.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
And you know we're going to have a cool team and
we're going to use them toreally emphasize this initiative
.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, hey, this is all great.
I love the work that you'redoing and I love that you're
willing to kind of share some ofthis information with a lot of
my colleagues as well.
So, listeners, I'll haveVince's contact information in
the show notes, as well ashyperlinks so everybody can move
for the legislation LB410that's trying to go through.
(18:35):
If you want to become anadvocate, I'll have information
there, and then all of theevents that Vince just talked
about, we'll have some links inthe show notes for as well, so
you can easily connect with himif you have any interest.
Vince, thanks for joining theconversation, even if briefly,
to share about what you havegoing on.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Absolutely.
Thank you, Brad, Thank you Nick.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
All right, Nick.
Finally, let's just kind ofshift gears toward practice
updates.
So you were talking to me alittle bit before we started
recording about the finalMedicare rules for 2026.
What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Yeah, so the rules have come out.
There's links posted to them inthe SOAP note that came out in
May as well, if you want to godirectly and read more about
them.
Essentially, there was a fewpositives and a few things that
we really were hoping were goingto be better.
Those things kind of revolvedaround Medicare Advantage plans.
I know for a lot of you therehas been just a desire for more
(19:34):
information on what securitiespatients have with these plans,
making sure that they're fullyaware of what is in them and
what their plan covers.
And then for the provider, wewere looking for more
information about what are thespecifics on prior authorization
or how do these utilizationmanagement companies work that
(19:55):
control these plans, andunfortunately we didn't get any
more clarity on those, and wealso didn't get a really clear
idea of was this 26 rule thefinal rule, in the sense that
they're just not?
The administration is not goingto give us any more information
on this, or do we just need tobe patient?
My understanding is APTA hasput out a request for more
information on that, and so wejust need to be patient.
My understanding is APTA hasput out a request for more
(20:15):
information on that and so farit's just been silent.
So that's where we're at.
I wish I had better news foryou, but that's just kind of
where we're at with theseMedicare Advantage plans.
We'll continue to advocate forjust more information and keep
you up to date on that as bestwe can.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well, nick, I have one quick update on APTA
specialist certificationprograms.
There are some early birddeadlines if you're planning on
applying for your specialistcertification.
So the July 1st early birdapplication deadline is for
cardiovascular and pulmonary.
(20:52):
July 1st early bird applicationdeadline is for cardiovascular
and pulmonary, clinicalelectrophysiology, oncology,
women's health and woundmanagement specialists, and then
the July 31st early birdapplication deadline is for
geriatric, neurologic,orthopedic, pediatric and sports
specialties.
In all of those cases the finalapplication deadlines are
(21:14):
September 30th.
But past those early birddeadlines, just so you know,
audience, if you're interested,the application rates go up $100
.
Hey, thanks for the updatestoday.
Nick, members, audience,hopefully this is helpful for
you, a different way to hearsome of the information.
(21:35):
I would just kind of loop backand let you guys know that again
, we'll have the video for theall-district meeting in the show
notes.
I think it's helpful to kind ofhear what we're anticipating at
House of Delegates this year,and so you know we're going to
have a follow-up podcast that'lllaunch in August to just share
(21:56):
more information about some ofthose conversations and the
things that happened at House ofDelegates as well.
So Bobby Greasy and IanThompson will be on that show
when the time comes.
Hey, I do want to highlightjust a couple member deals here
in May that are maybe timely forsome of our graduates, since we
opened the show with graduates.
(22:17):
So, first and foremost, throughmember deals, through the APTA,
you can get 25% off on car andtruck rentals from providers
like Avis and Budget.
You can also get up to 65% onshipping things with UPS, and so
I would recommend that you guyslook into some of that if
(22:41):
you're needing help withshipping or moving items, as
you're kind of going out intoyour new jobs and starting your
careers too.
So thank you all for listening,and we'll have another podcast
in a couple weeks for you comingup.
So tune in again.
Thanks for tuning in to theAPTA Nebraska podcast.
(23:02):
Stay connected with us for moreconversations that elevate our
profession and improve the livesof Nebraskans.
Don't forget to subscribe,share and join the discussion,
because together we're drivingthe future of Nebraskans.
Don't forget to subscribe,share and join the discussion,
because together we're drivingthe future of physical therapy
forward.
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