July 14, 2010
More Legislative Good News!!
Both of the bills that contained PA language were signed into law by Governor Jay Nixon. These included HB 2226 which changed our prescriptive language to provide better clarity to our prescribing laws which should help clear the path for our controlled substance law to navigate through the rules and regulations process.
The other bill was SB 754 which will give PAs the authority to authorize handicapped license plates and placards. The details of when this will actually take affect with be communicated as the information becomes available.
This is great news and shows continued progress for the PA profession in Missouri and our ability to deliver care to the citizens that we serve. Thanks for all of your help with this organization and with the legislative process.
Paul Winter
MOAPA President
June 2, 2010
Another Successful Legislative Session!!
Great news from the legislative front. Both pieces of legislation introduced by MOAPA successfully passed through the Missouri Legislature and are now onto Gov. Nixon for his signature.
HB2226 was a bill that included language that changed our original prescriptive language to say that "PAs shall not prescribe, nor dispense any drug, medicine or therapy unless pursuant to a physician supervision agreement in accordance to the law". This replaced the original language that stated basically that PAs shall not prescribe without independent consultation with the supervising physician. The latter language was being questioned to say that we should be directly consulting with your supervising physician before you write any prescription even non controlled. Therefore, this new language helps clarify this point and this was also a request from the state BNDD in order to help facilitate the process of enacting our controlled substance law which was passed last session.
Another part of this bill also dealt with the waiver process as well as off site supervision for rural health clinics. This new bill states that renewal waivers that have been granted on or after August 28,2009 for PAs working in a rural health clinic under the Federal Rural Health Services Act, P.L. 95-210 will not be needed as long as the clinic maintains its designation as a rural health clinic and all other rules have been followed. Also, it is spelled out in the bill that the supervision requirements will follow the minimum federal law regarding physician onsite supervision. This is a physician has to be present no less than 10 percent of the clinic working hours.
The other bill that successfully passed was SB754. This bill designates PAs as having the authority to authorize handicapped license plates and placards which was previously prohibited.
Again please know that these bills are now off to Gov Nixon for signature so they are not laws yet. After his signature, they will go into effect August 28,2010. As mentioned earlier this will hopefully help facilitate the process of getting our controlled substance legislation in action. I do not have a time frame on exactly how long this process will take but I will certainly pass along information as it is available. I encourage you to use the legislative links to read the full texts of these bills for your own information and education.
The legislative success this year was just another example of the outstanding work that is done for us from Jorgen Schleimeier, our lobbyist. He really went to the mat for us this year and got both of our bills passed on the last day of session as it looked like other political issues were going to close us out but he was able to work his magic. If any of you get a chance to meet Jorgen in Branson, please take a moment to thank him personally for the work he has done for us. We have been making steady progress in this state and a lot of that is due to his work.
Thanks for reading!
Paul Winter
MOAPA President
paultwin@aol.com
MOAPA Under New Management
A few months ago, the MOAPA Board was notified by AAPA that due to budget cut backs, AAPA was discontinuing their COMS (Constituent Management Services) which is the entity of AAPA who managed the business details of many state chapters including Missouri. So we were now given the task to find new management services. None of us had any experience with this as AAPA COMS had been running the business stuff for longer that anyone's tenure on the board. We did discover that Gamble and Schlemeier, along with their lobbyist services, also does organization management so we were able to work out an agreement with them to provide this service.
We are very excited to have a management service that is somewhat local as they are in Jefferson City and will have a direct presence in the state. One of the services which we feel will be very attractive to the PAs of Missouri is that we will now be able to offer a rolling membership enrollment. This will give people the ability to join MOAPA at anytime of the year and receive a full year of membership. In the past, the membership cycle was from July to July and to get a full year, you needed to join in July but now Gamble and Schlemeier has made it possible to get that full year of membership from whenever you join. This will hopefully help us boost our membership numbers especially with those people who move to Missouri throughout the year. Below is the new contact information for our management services:
Cecile Landrum
Executive Director
MOAPA
P.O Box 1865
Jefferson City, MO 65102
(573) 634-3448
(573) 635-6258 fax
Web Address www.moapa.org
email: info@MOAPA.org or cecile@molobby.com
The board of directors will continue be listed on the website so feel free to contact any of us if you have questions or suggestions. Thanks for your continued support of MOAPA and please welcome our new management team!!
MOAPA Board of Directors
Change in MOAPA Dues for 2010-2011 cycle
Due to increasing budgetary expenses that MOAPA has been incurring, the board of directors felt it necessary and voted to increase the MOAPA dues to $125.00 annually starting this renewal cycle. There has not been an increase in dues for greater than 10 years but the costs of doing business and running the organization continue to rise so this was felt necessary to help try and meet those expenses. I hope the PAs of Missouri understand this and please realize that decision was not taken lightly. Thank you for your understanding.
MOAPA Board of Directors |
