The American Physical Therapy Association is your professional association. Join today and make the most of your membership from day one! Put yourself in touch with the resources you need for continued personal and professional growth.

APTA Membership Helps You... Protect Your Future

Advocacy:

• Promoting federal and state legislation to give patients and clients direct access to physical therapists without a referral.

• Preventing a scheduled 10.6% reduction in payments under the Medicare physician fee schedule for the remainder of 2008 and an additional 5.0% cut for 2009.

• Preserving the scope of physical therapists' practice against efforts to restrict or eliminate your ability to practice.

Consumer Awareness:

• Publishing For Your Health consumer magazine each October. Bulk copies are free to members for distribution at clinics and at NPTM events.

• Creating the Find a PT database featuring more than 4,000 physical therapist members.

APTA Membership Helps You... Get Paid Appropriately for Your Services

• Answering member questions through phone calls and e-mails.

• Providing a Medicare Fee Calculator to members FREE.

• Sponsoring workshops throughout the country on reimbursement and coding.

• Meeting regularly with insurers and case managers to educate them about physical therapy issues.

• Access to APTA's Defensible Documentation for Patient/Client Management resource, a companion guide to the Association's existing documentation guidelines.

APTA Membership Helps You... Respond to Changes in Practice

• Publishing the Interactive Guide to Physical Therapist Practice, With Catalog of Tests and Measures, Version 1.0.

• Developing Hooked on Evidence, an interactive online database with more than 4,000 entries designed to assess the validity and clinical importance of research evidence.

• Creating CONNECT, a national outcomes data collection system to store and analyze information on patients/clients in outpatient settings.

APTA Membership Helps You... Find Answers to Your PT Questions

• Physical Therapy and PT Magazine ($170 value; FREE to members)

• PT Bulletin Online

• 24-hour access to information via www.apta.org

• Reimbursement News

• Online Buyers Guide

• PT e-Clips

• APTA's Consulting Service that links members with qualified consultants who can provide personalized guidance

• Staff experts on practice, reimbursement, education, and research issues

APTA Membership Helps You... Strengthen Your Knowledge and Skills

• More than 1,690 hours of continuing education via Annual Conference, the Combined Sections Meeting, Preview 2020, APTA Learning Center, and a host of workshops and seminars on such topics as Reimbursement and Coding, Fraud and Abuse, and Fitness and Wellness Consultation.

• Advanced Clinical Practice Series, a new course series based on evidence, and focused on helping you secure your future.

• A variety of convenient and flexible distance-learning optionsundefinedincluding both home-study and interactive online courses.

APTA Membership Helps You... Gain Recognition and Advance Your Career

• Clinical residency and fellowship credentialing.

• Online Career Center with job listings and tips on emerging practice areas, résumé writing, and interviewing.

• Specialist Certification in 7 specialty areas.

• Online Directory of Certified Clinical Specialists.

• Members Mentoring Members online Directory.

• At the Chapter level: Attention to state and local issues, referral sources, and a network of colleagues.

• Via Sections: Information specific to your expertise and access to colleagues with mutual interests.

APTA is working for you and succeeding!

Take pride in being a part of the only professional association representing physical therapy. As a member, you make our success possible!

Help APTA achieve even more! Share these accomplishments and the benefits of belonging with your colleagues. With each new member, APTA grows stronger. To request membership information for a friend, colleague, or student, contact APTA's Member Services Department at 800/999-2782, ext 3395, from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm ET.

Listserv Discussion Group
Chapter members are invited to join the Chapter's e-mail discussion group, a great way to ask questions and get answers from your peers about reimbursement and practice issues. You must have an active e-mail address to participate and mu e a current Chapter member. To sign up go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mapta-members/.

From the Chapter Office
The Montana Chapter – APTA office is happy to assist members with any number of questions and we encourage you to use our office as a resource for your practice. If we can't answer your question, we can nearly always help you find someone who can.In addition, the following services are available to both members and non-members:

Continuing Education Unit Endorsement
The Montana Board of Physical Therapy Examiners has agreed to accept for relicensure continuing education units (CEUs) approved by the Montana Chapter. Courses for CEUs are approved by the Chapter’s Education Committee. The application fee is $75 and applications are available from the Chapter Office. Applications and instructions can be downloaded from the Documents Page.

Publications
The Montana Chapter publishes a newsletter three times a year and sends a semi-monthly E-newsletter electronically.. Both publications are provided to current members at no additional cost The Chapter also accepts paid advertising for both publications. Rates are available here.

Research
Through its Creative Projects Fund, which is a part of the Education and Research Program, the Montana Chapter supports a number of physical therapy research projects each year. With member input, the Chapter also occasionally requests that special research projects be conducted by the Education and Research Program. Abstracts are published annually in the Chapter Newsletter and the application process for project funding is open to all Chapter members. Applications may be downloaded from the Documents Page.