AAOE - American Alliance of Orthopaedic Executives

Your 2027 Medicare payment is being decided.

The proposed CY 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule includes changes that could have a significant financial and operational impact on musculoskeletal practices - from payment reductions and changes to practice expense calculations to new requirements tied to the Ambulatory Surgical Model.

These proposals can affect more than reimbursement. They can influence staffing decisions, technology investments, practice sustainability, and patient access.

AAOE is working with the Advocacy Council, members, and advocacy partners to make sure policymakers understand what these changes could mean inside real practices.

Your experience can strengthen that work.

The AAOE Advocacy Toolkit gives you practical resources to communicate with policymakers and share how federal payment policy affects your practice and patients.

Use the toolkit and make your voice part of the conversation: https://www.aaoe.net/news/advocacy-toolkit-2027-physician-fee-schedule-cuts

Some of the questions on your desk already have an AAOE resource for them. 📚

Need help navigating advocacy? New to practice management? Trying to make sense of industry acronyms? Want to strengthen your professional presence? Looking for better context around your practice data?

AAOE has resources built around the work musculoskeletal practice leaders are doing every day:
📘 Political Primer E-book: understand the legislative + regulatory process and how to advocate for your practice.
📗 20 Key Insights for New Orthopedic Practice Managers: practical guidance for navigating practice management.
📙 AAOE Executive Acronym Glossary: a quick reference for the terminology practice leaders encounter every day.
💻 LinkedIn for Orthopedic Practice Administrators: a resource focused on LinkedIn for practice administrators.
📊 Leveraging Benchmarking Data for Success in Orthopedic Practices: see how practice leaders are using
benchmarking to inform decisions around revenue cycle, staffing, compensation, productivity, patient access + more.

All four AAOE e-books are available to members at no cost.

Build your AAOE resource shelf:
👉 Explore the e-books: https://www.aaoe.net/products/e-books
👉 Explore benchmarking resources: https://www.aaoe.net/benchmarking

Years of showing up can be easy to overlook when someone makes it look routine.

Francis “Sam” Santschi, JD, CMPE, recipient of the AAOE 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award, spent more than a decade giving his time, leadership, and experience to the AAOE community. He served in board and council roles, held AAOE’s highest elected office, and helped guide the organization through some of its most challenging moments.

That is what recognition can bring into focus: the years of service behind the impact.

Who in the AAOE community comes to mind for you?

The AAOE 2027 Awards of Excellence are accepting nominations for:
🏆 Lifetime Achievement Award
🏆 Volunteer of the Year Award

Help recognize someone whose leadership or service has made a difference to AAOE and the people it serves.
📅 Submit your nomination by September 18, 2026.

View the criteria + nominate:
https://www.aaoe.net/awards-categories

The policy challenges affecting your practice are also the experiences policymakers need to hear about.

Prior authorization, reimbursement, staffing, and regulatory requirements have real consequences for patient access and practice operations - and practice leaders can help bring that reality into policy conversations.

In AAOE’s latest advocacy blog, Zelda Rariden shares how your day-to-day experience can become a meaningful advocacy voice for your practice and the patients you serve.

Small actions can make a difference:
🔹 Stay informed on issues affecting your practice
🔹 Respond to advocacy alerts
🔹 Share real examples with policymakers
🔹 Get involved through the AAOE Advocacy Council
Your perspective can help make sure the realities of running a musculoskeletal practice are part of the policy conversation.

Read the full post: https://www.aaoe.net/news/growing-your-orthopedic-voice-with-aaoe-

When technology slows down, the whole practice feels it.

Staff lose time. Workflows stall. Patient care becomes harder to coordinate.

That is why healthcare-focused IT support matters.

AAOE is proud to spotlight CodexIT as a sponsor of the Women in Orthopedic Practice Management Conference 2026.

Their team is bringing real value to the conversation by supporting the technology practice leaders rely on to keep teams connected, information protected, and operations moving.

📍 September 9-10, 2026
Rosemont, IL (Just outside Chicago, minutes from O’Hare)

Save additional $25 with sponsor code CODEXIT25

Limited seats available. Save your spot: https://www.aaoe.net/events/women-in-medical-practice-management-conference-2026

⏰ More time, but not unlimited time.

We know summer schedules are packed, so the AAOE 2027 Call for Proposals deadline has been extended.

If you have been meaning to submit, use the extra time to put your idea forward.

Presenting at AAOE 2027 gives you the opportunity to:
• Share your expertise with musculoskeletal practice leaders
• Build professional visibility + credibility
• Expand your network with peers across the profession
• Help shape the education your colleagues receive in Fort Worth
• Strengthen your résumé and speaker portfolio
• Access a substantially discounted presenter registration rate

Need an idea? Visit AAOE Collaborate and see the questions, challenges, and solutions members are already discussing. A conversation you have contributed to could be the starting point for your session.

Need support before submitting? AAOE staff and members are available to help you talk through your idea, practice your presentation approach, or point you toward resources that can help you feel prepared. Connect with Us!

Have something valuable to share but cannot attend the full conference? A fly-in/fly-out speaking option is also available for presenters who only want to deliver their session.

The deadline moved. The opportunity did not.
📅 Submit your proposal: https://www.aaoe.net/aaoe-2027-annual-conference


Need support before submitting? AAOE staff and members are available to help you talk through your idea, practice your presentation approach, or point you toward resources that can help you feel prepared. Email [email protected] to get started.

The hardest part of leading is not the decisions. It is letting go of the work you know you could do faster yourself.

Four women leaders. Ten minutes each. One practical lesson apiece.

Rapid Fire: Real Talk from Women Who Lead is built for the parts of leadership nobody hands you a process for.

• Recognizing when you have become the default fix for everything
• Setting boundaries that hold
• Handing off work without quietly taking it back
• Letting your team stretch, even when doing it yourself would be faster
• Knowing when stepping back is the stronger move

Short talks, honest experience, and one idea you can put to work the week you get home
📍 Women in Orthopedic Practice Management 2026
September 9-10, 2026 | Rosemont, IL (Just outside Chicago, minutes from O’Hare)

Save your spot: https://www.aaoe.net/events/women-in-medical-practice-management-conference-2026

Most of this data is already sitting in a file you built this year.

You’ve already done the hard part. Pull together the numbers you have, complete your submission, and turn work you’ve already done into context your leadership team can use.

AAOE benchmarking gives your leadership team specialty-specific context for:
• Compensation
• Staffing
• Overhead
• Collections
• Provider productivity
• Practice performance

Internal reports show what happened inside your practice. Peer comparisons help explain what those numbers mean and where your team may need to take action

What support is available?
AAOE can help you understand your options, identify data that may be reused, and determine the best next step for your practice.

Use the work your team has already completed to gain more value from your data. You will get FREE access to the Benchmarking Results when you participate.

Submit your survey now: https://www.aaoe.net/benchmarking

Email [email protected] to learn about your options.

Deadline: August 31



Email [email protected] to learn about your options.

🌟 Volunteer Spotlight: Kemuel Carey, MBA, MHS, PA-C, ATC, FACHE 🌟

AAOE proudly recognizes Kemuel Carey, CEO of Peninsula Orthopaedic Associates in Salisbury, MD, for his service on the AAOE Education & Technology Council.

For Kemuel, volunteering is an opportunity to give back to the community that has supported his own professional journey. Having benefited from mentors and AAOE colleagues throughout his career, he believes sharing experiences and lessons learned is an important way to help others grow.

💬 “Sharing your knowledge is your legacy. Life is short; share your lessons learned more often.”

Kemuel values the AAOE Annual Conference for the opportunity it provides to connect, learn, and grow alongside peers from across the orthopedic community.

His passion for orthopedics spans multiple perspectives. As an athletic trainer, physician assistant, and now a practice executive, Kemuel has experienced the fulfillment of helping patients regain function firsthand and now finds that same sense of purpose in supporting the teams that make exceptional care possible.

👏 Three words to describe his service: Valuable | Productive | Impactful

Thank you, Kemuel, for sharing your knowledge, supporting your peers, and helping advance education and technology in orthopedic practice!

🔗 Join AAOE’s volunteer community: https://www.aaoe.net/volunteer