Bios
Mary Foto
Mary Foto, OT, FAOTA, CCM, a past President of the American Occupational
Therapy Association (AOTA), is chief executive officer of two companies. The
Foto Group, Inc. which provides non-physician peer medical review and supporting
systems, and Treat-it.com, an ASP documentation and practice management package
for non-physician rehabilitation and technology providers.
The Foto Group counts among its current and former clients in both government
and commercial healthcare: WellPoint/Blue Cross of California (for more than 38
years), United Government Services, Empire/Blue Cross Blue Shield of New York,
HMSA, Blue Cross of Arizona, HealthLink/Blue Cross of Missouri, Anthem Colorado,
UniCare, Maximus, Johnson & Johnson, and Kraft. The Foto Group created the first
electronic medical information system for Blue Cross of California over 22 years
ago, ported the system over to the Florida Shared System (FSS), and later worked
with CMS as they made the attachment a national Medicare requirement. The Foto
Group also created the Data Dictionary for CMS to accompany the national
electronic attachment. Later, The Foto Group created an expert system to
electronically review the attachment.
Ms. Foto, an internationally-recognized, non-physician medical review and
evidence-based practice expert, has served as AOTA’s representative to the
American Medical Association’s (AMA) Health Care Practitioner Advisory Committee
(HCPAC) Review Board for the past 14 years. For six of those years, she
represented all non-physicians to the AMA’s Practice Expense Advisory Committee.
In 1997, she served on Vice President Gore’s task force to develop The Patient
Bill of Rights. In April 2003, and again in 2005, where she was elected Co-Chair
of the American Medical Association’s HCPAC and continues to represent the
Advisory Committee and all of its non-physician member organizations as a voting
member of the AMA’s Relative Value Update Committee (RUC). The RUC develops and
recommends annual updates to the Medicare fee schedule which is used by most
payers in the United States. In March of 2007, she was appointed to the
California Medical Evidence Evaluation Advisory Committee.
As a past President of the American Occupational Therapy Association,
(1995-1998), she chaired the Tri-Alliance of Therapy Professions and also the
Coalition of Rehabilitation Therapies allowing her an opportunity to represent
multiple professions.
In 2004-2005, she was a member of CMS’s Negotiated Rule Making for Orthotics and
Prosthetics and has testified before Congress and Congressional committees on
electronic medical records. She has authored many peer-reviewed journal articles
and has performed over 300 speaking engagements in the past 10 years.