Registration for the 2019 AAPA Conference and Extra Fee for Not Staying at Conference Housing
If you’re an AAPA member then you’ve most likely seen that the AAPA Conference 2019 registration is now open. The conference is going to be held at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver.
New this year, the AAPA is charging extra if you don’t stay in official housing. Whenever, I’ve gone to the conference I’ve always stayed in the official housing, as it is convenient to stay close to the conference location. However, I don’t think it is fair to penalize those who are able to find less expensive housing, or possibly commuting to the location.
The most annoying thing about the extra charge for not staying in conference housing is that they make it sound like they are giving a discount for staying in the conference housing. In actuality, the price increased from $555 two years ago when I went to the conference in Las Vegas. The cyber Monday price is now $750, so the conference this year is costing the same as it did before, but now if you elect to find other housing options you are penalized.
The price above is for members only, so not only do you have to pay for the conference you also have to pay for your AAPA membership. The cost of AAPA membership is $295 per year. There are other benefits to AAPA membership than the conference and continuing education; however those are some of the main benefits.
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PA salaries have been showing signs for plateauing, but the cost of becoming a PA and the cost to maintain certification continues to increase. I know PAs who do not keep their AAPA membership, as they don’t see the value; and with the price of everything going up I can see why they think that.
For many states you need to be certified to keep your license, and in order to stay certified you need continuing education hours. There are other ways to get hours without being an AAPA member.
Another important role that the AAPA provides is as an advocate for PAs. Ever thought about the PA name? The AAPA would be the organization that works to change this.
They also like to squabble with other PA organizations, like the NCCPA. A hot topic at the conference a couple of years ago was PA certification, with the AAPA threatening to create their own certification process. Not that this would have solved anything. We would just have to pay someone else to maintain our PA certification, but a lot of time and money was spent on this with the AAPA eventually backing off on the issue.
I still think the conference is the best conference for PAs. There’s tons of CME and other events that happen during the week, as well as opportunity to connect with other PAs. I am registered for the conference and booked my hotel in the official conference housing to avoid the $200 up charge. If you’re able to find cheaper housing you can save money, but know that you’ll be charged extra fees when registering for the conference.
The current price for registration goes up after 11/26/18, so to save even more, register now and don’t wait for the price to go.
What do you think of the AAPA charging conference attendees who stay in non-official housing? Are you planning on being in Denver? Please comment below the original post, sign up to receive future posts by email and share with your friends!
Alot of government PAs dont usually get to stay at conference hotels due to limited perdiem rates, this just amplifies that. We started sending people to Sempa conferences and found it was often a more beneficial coference. I have only gone to a couple of Aapa conferences and found them to be too costly and too massive of people in lectures for the content. No time for questions and going between seminars seemed to be chaotic. This increased cost ensures I will likely not attend.
40 years as a surgical PA and the AAPA has never had our interests at heart. Quit them a couple decades ago.
it’s too bad that this is the sentiment of so many PAs
I was thinking about going to the AAPA conference in Denver in 2019. After reading about the $200 penalty that AAPA will impose upon PAs who choose to stay somewhere other than at the official hotel, I will not go to the conference. I hope that AAPA loses a lot of conference attendees due to this greedy, insensitive decision to penalize hard-working PAs.
I just attended an ortho hip/knee conference in Dallas at the swanky Hilton Anatole, which charges minimum $15/day for parking on most days, for a total less than $800 where I stayed at a hotel 1.5 miles away to save on my CME funds, etc. (with a rental car too), while a coworker stayed at the host site was 100%+ more per night for the room, for example.
It seems to me perhaps AAPA should book hotel sites that fit within its budget based on revenue from annual member dues and not whatever they’re promising to the site hotels in member attendance/hotel revenue, and if that means book at a 3.5- or 4-star conference hotel and not a 4.0-4.5-star conference hotel, so be it. We’re not doctor money. More PAs might be inclined to more seriously consider AAPA conference cost. … Instead, AAPA seems intent on everyone booking nicely loaded Lexuses when it makes economical sense to drive a nicely loaded ‘non luxury’ SUV instead, to borrow the anology of so many people living sensibly within their means.
This decision will further prevent people from wanting to consider booking an AAPA conference d/t overall cost to attend vs their annual CME funds available. This decision literally devalues my membership – one less benefit I get out of it in terms of it being even unlikelier I book an AAPA conference – if I decide to renew my membership.
edit fix: so many people who DON’T live sensibly within their means.
Yes, it seems like they could either book less rooms at the host hotel or choose less expensive hotels as you mentioned above.
“If you’re an AAPA member than you’ve most likely seen that the AAPA Conference 2019 registration is now open.” I think you mean “then” and not “than.” Can you please fix this sentence? I can’t take it!
will, do thank you!
though I am no longer an AAPA member I think it is punitive and ridiculous for them to charge more money to not stay on site for the conference. Some people may need to have kitchen facilities because of health and dietary needs so they might stay at an apartment rental.
200 dollar charge if I stay somewhere other than conference hotel. For this reason I won’t be attending. Then the precious AAPA gets $0
Yes, it’s unfortunate that the additional charge is driving a lot of members away.
I agree. I have family in Denver, and would love to maximize my CME allowance by staying with them and utilizing Denver’s mass transit. But I will be finding another relevant conference to attend due to this greedy, unfounded, and quite frankly, unfair charge.
The National Conference started getting too large about 10 years ago and I stopped attending. It is much nicer and more sane to go to the State Conference in FL. We have two a year. The rates are reasonable and no restrictions on where you stay. If AAPA continues to take these sorts of actions, more and more of us will avoid the $750 conferences and expensive mandatory Hotel accomodations. Mike Gross, PA-C
This is one of many reasons I don’t support or belong to the AAPA. To be so arrogant to charge a Provider that is attending their conference and NOT staying at the same hotel is about the same as the NCCPA charging a fee just to log your CME’s on their website. The bottom line with both organizations is that they need the funds to support the leadership and the their salary and benefit package. They do not in my opinion fight for the working PA. Why is it that PA’s have been around longer than NP’s yet their governing bodies and supporters had them at the table to reap the financial incentive that Medicare offered when changing to the EMR system. No one fought or got those same incentives for the PA… I also don’t know who allows so many PA Programs to develop in a State but here in Tennessee, I went to school in 2003 and there were 2 programs. Now there are at least 12 and I hear that there will be 18 in just a short period of time. The NP programs did the same thing here in Tennessee and kept diminishing the number of hours required to finish NP school. There is an online program at Tennessee Tech that requires ONLY 230 hrs of clinic time and the NP is ready to go…NP’s are a dime a dozen in the great state of Tennessee and work for absolutely nothing, which leads to the question of why would a practice hire a PA when they can get a NP for 1/3 to 1/2 of what a PA would earn.
The clinic time allowed for NP’s, in my opinion is Crazy because in 1978 when I was doing my clinic ride a long time as a Paramedic Student, I had to obtain 1500 hrs with a seasoned Medic that was obviously a Marine Corp Boot Camp Sgt in his previous life, as we students did absolutely nothing right, except on a rare occasion and then we did it too slow and too late…
I don’t see the AAPA as an advocate for PA’s but just a money maker. In order to be a Fellow in the Tennessee Academy of Physician Assistant’s you have to belong to the AAPA. Of course, titles mean nothing to me since my patients call me by my given name but it goes to show its all about the money. I know the NCCPA President sits with a salary of OVER $400,000.00 a year plus a tremendous benefits package. What has that kind of salary done for you as a working PA?
Thanks for the comment. I agree, the benefits of the AAPA are often not seen, but without it I’m sure the PA profession would be in a worse place.
It does feel like the NCCPA and AAPA are out for our money. Is there something we can do about this?
I am not sure we PA’s would be in a worse place without AAPA. in New York City and tri-state area, a PA gets paid less than NP’s and gets lectured by pharmacists for not putting supervising MD’s name on EMR, which in most cases are not controllable by us. Institutions prefer NP’s because employee MD’s don’t want to be responsible for PA’s mistakes, or at least not directly as “supervising” physicians. Also I haven’t seen any resentment from MD’s regarding NP’s ability to practice independently in NY. On the contrary, NP’s in NY/NJ are hot commodities except for in surgical fields.
In the meantime, most of today’s new NP’s graduates never went through being a nurse, which work gives them the argument that their nursing on-job training and NP education qualifies them as independent practitioners. What a concept!
Whoa. AAPA has done a lot for our profession. They are probably the most powerful and successful PA professional organization. To consider throwing them out for a bad decision? Not smart. Consider the increasing costs of policy development, lobbying and driving change. They are big. I agree that this $200 feels like a bad decision but I don’t know the whole story. Give AAPA a chance to reply. Nursing has a huge base: CNA, CNS, LPN, ASN, BSN, CNMW, MSN, PhD/DSN, NP & CRNA…3 million+. I think I saw some data showing that there are 250k+ NP, double without including the other nursing professions. I may have missed some nurses. Nursing a large financial support base. Nursing requirements are not as stringent because they do not practice medicine, they practice nursing. But make no mistake, Nursing is serious about their lobbying. They are far ahead of Physician Assistant lobbying. Physician Assistant base: PA-S, certificate PA, Associate PA, BS-PA, MS-PA, DSC-PA, Anesthesia Asst-PA…125k+? See a difference? Add on top that many of us don’t pay dues to any organization let alone the “expensive” AAPA. AAPA has been a worthy organization. We just need to get them back on track. NCCPA, on the other hand, not sure if our certifying agency should be in the business changing our profession. I believe they should certify only. That is their purpose. But, NCCPA has a lot of money and power so they use this in their somewhat misguided sense of purpose to “prove our profession”. We have one certifying body. We have no choice.
Yes, PAs are stuck in between a rock and a hard place. Both AAPA and NCCPA have their faults but are necessary for the profession. I don’t think the profession would be where it is with the AAPA even if it feels like they aren’t doing anything.
Don’t joint the organizations… I have several state license and choose to work in those states that Don’t require the NCCPA (C) behind my name. I’d like to know just one thing each of the organizations do for PA’s ? I don’t know of any!
Which states don’t require the C. After your title?
There are a few. I don’t believe CA requires it – I know PAs in CA that have dropped the C, I don’t believe that has changed recently. In Oregon we technically don’t need it but all the requirements to keep your license (i.e. cme hours, etc) are similar as the certification and it’s easier to just keep up certification and show that, then keep records of all the requirements and turn that into the medical board.
Amen – I was an active member of AAPA many years ago ( chapter pres, house of delagetes ect . Many years ago was involved with helping conduct a poll on need for name change , overwhelming results in favor of the need . Never the less AAPA refused to even research or consider the need ! I was a member for about 25 of my 38 years as a PA
Wow, that is too bad to hear, especially from someone who was involved.
Consider the sheer number of legal documents that would have to be changed from PA to ?? That in itself would make the proposition a huge undertaking, including legislative hearings @ local, state and federal levels. Whew.