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With their approval of APA’s corporate reorganization by a huge margin, members will see APA taking on increased advocacy efforts on behalf of patients with mental illnesses and on behalf of APA members, among other important changes, beginning in 2001.

The Board of Trustees made the election results official at its meeting last month in Washington, D.C. APA will now be able to proceed with its transition from a 501(c)(3) charitable organization to a 501(c)(6) professional organization, the tax status held by most of its district branches and other national medical organizations. The transition will be complete on January 2, 2001.

Under its 501(c)(3) tax status, APA has been severely limited in the amount of advocacy or lobbying activity it could undertake and in the amount of money and technical assistance it could provide to district branches and state societies for those initiatives.

"This is the most important step taken in many years to transform APA into an organization that can act decisively and rapidly in support of our advocacy and public education missions," APA President Allan Tasman, M.D., told Psychiatric News. "Our increased ability to provide direct support to district branches and state societies is a critically important and central aspect of this change."

APA Medical Director Steven Mirin, M.D., emphasized that the corporate reorganization "will allow us to redirect APA’s resources to where they can do the most good—in improving the care that patients receive and the ability of our members to provide that care. We will also be better able to address critical issues such as managed care, parity, prescribing by nonphysicians, and access to care at the state level, where those issues will ultimately be decided."

APA members cast their ballots overwhelmingly in favor of the amended and restated bylaws, which is the document that authorizes the organizational shift to take place. The vote count showed that 94.7 percent of the members who voted on the issue endorsed the change, while 5.3 percent opposed it. For such an amendment to be enacted, two-thirds of the votes must be cast in favor of the change, a level that was easily surpassed on this proposal.

Mirin noted that much of the credit for the passage of the reorganization proposal goes to APA’s district branch and state association leaders and APA staff.

"They did a Herculean job of contacting members—through faxes, phone calls, articles in local society newsletters, and other means—and explaining how voting in favor of the proposal would benefit APA members and their patients. The amendment might not have been passed without the involvement of these leaders."

APA members will be transferred from the 501(c)(3) to the 501(c)(6) organization next January, but the change will be invisible to them: Members will continue to receive the same benefits they now do from APA, including free subscriptions to the American Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric News, discounted registration fees at APA annual meetings, and other benefits of membership.

In January 2001, the 501(c)(6) organization will become the American Psychiatric Association. Three 501(c)(3) organizations will become subsidiaries of the 501(c)(6) parent organization. They include the American Psychiatric Publishing Group, which will bring together APA’s publications and the American Psychiatric Press; the American Psychiatric Foundation; and the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education.

Member dues and some of APA’s other income will go the 501(c)(6) organization. The four organizations will also share administrative resources.

With the change in the Association’s tax status, APA members will no longer be able to deduct their national dues as a charitable expense on their tax returns beginning in tax year 2001. They will, however, be able to do so as a business expense (if they are otherwise eligible to do so), minus the percentage of the APA budget that the Association spends on lobbying activities. Members will be advised each year as to what that percentage is. In dollar amounts, this will be a small change, more than offset by the advantages of the reorganization, said Mirin.