As vice president of reimbursement and professional advocacy for the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) with 32 years of staff experience, Michael L. Powe is a highly respected advocate for and champion of the PA profession. He has worked tirelessly on issues such as legislative rights for PA practice, Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial payer reimbursement for services delivered by PAs, to authorize PAs to practice to the top of their education, training and experience.
Mr. Powe is a published author and speaker and an adjunct assistant professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences in Washington, DC. He has received numerous accolades and awards, his most cherished being the John W. Kirklin, MD, Award for Professional Excellence from the American Association of Surgical PAs.
Mr. Powe graduated from Ohio State University (OSU) with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Marketing. Upon graduation from OSU, he worked as a legislative researcher and policy writer for the U.S. Senate’s Small Business Committee on Capitol Hill. Mr. Powe participated in legislative research and policy-writing for regulatory relief and tax policies affecting small businesses. In 1982, Mr. Powe joined the New York Life Insurance Company where he worked in health and life insurance sales, marketing and as a training representative. In 1986, Mr. Powe became vice president of the brokerage firm Goldchain, Powe & Chapman.
In November 1991, Mr. Powe accepted a position at the AAPA as the Government Affairs Administrator. He felt that his prior career experiences with legislation blended well with AAPA’s vision for expanding PA recognition among payers. Over the next few years, the Government Affairs Department worked on multiple legislative issues on the federal, state, and local levels, providing input and helping craft legislative policies.
Over the years, numerous reimbursement-related milestones have taken place on behalf of PAs and the patients they serve, some of the most notable being:
- The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 reformed provisions in Medicare and Medicaid programs, recognizing PAs and APRNs as covered providers in all settings at a uniform rate of payment for the first time.
- The creation of The Essential Guide to PA Reimbursement became the definitive publication cataloging and explaining PA reimbursement and coverage policies. [Note: A copy of which, signed by Michael Powe, has been donated to the PAHx archive.]
- In 2003, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded the ability of PAs to have an ownership interest in a practice and to be reimbursed by Medicare & Medicaid.
- In 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued regulation relaxing the requirement for PA supervision and now defers to state law regarding the relationship/ lack thereof that PAs must have with physicians and other healthcare professionals.
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that oversees the Medicare program, released the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule final rule, effective January 1, 2022, permanently authorizing PAs to receive direct payment from the Medicare program. Previously, payment for services provided by PAs was required to be made to the PA’s employer. The inability to be paid directly hindered PAs from fully participating in certain practice, employment, and ownership arrangements, prevented them from reassigning their payments in a manner like physicians and APRNs, and created additional administrative barriers to hiring and utilizing PAs.
- In 2023, AAPA hosted the first Payer Summit meeting at the AAPA national office. The largest commercial payers in the country attended the meeting and were provided data and research supporting PA quality of care, high levels of patient satisfaction and clinical productivity as members of high-functioning clinical teams.
Mr. Powe has a sense of pride and accomplishment in having been a small part of the PA movement which now plays an essential role in the US healthcare system. He spoke about some of those accomplishments in May 2023 in an Oral History interview conducted by the PAHx Society. However, he believes there is more to be accomplished, and believes the profession’s best years are still ahead.
After 32 years at AAPA, Michael announced his retirement in June 2024. At the AAPA House of Delegates meeting in 2024, Mr. Powe was named an honorary PA and received his own white coat. [See AAPA Bids Adieu to Michael Powe, Tireless PA Advocate ,Medscape, June 13, 2024 and Michael Powe: Honoring 32 Years of Service, AAPA, May 18, 2024]
Mr. Powe and his wife Luisa – a PA- have one son. Mr. Powe’s passions include travel and outdoor activities. As a younger man, he enjoyed skydiving (10 jumps), hot-air ballooning, and bungee cord jumping. He is known for driving a car with the vanity plate “PAY A PA!” (Photo provided with Mr. Powe’s permission.)
To watch another interview with Mr. Powe from the ATSU DMSc MasterClass series, please click here.
Acknowledgments: This Biographical Sketch was originally prepared by Robert Smith with the help of Mr. Michael Powe in November 2021. Photographs are courtesy of AAPA and the PA History Society’s Photographic Collection. In 2024, PAHx Historian Tricia Marriott updated Mr. Powe’s Biography, with the assistance of Mr. Michael Powe.
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