Welcome to the website of the Missouri Academy of Physician Assistants (MOAPA). MOAPA serves the needs of PAs and PA students who work or reside in the state of Missouri. MOAPA's website serves its members and the public by providing a forum for services and ideas designed to strengthen and promote the PA profession throughout Missouri. MOAPA will strive to publicize the contributions of PAs to patients, employers, and policy makers. As the voice and advocate of PAs in Missouri, MOAPA promotes continuing education for its members, provides PA employment information to PAs and physicians, and strengthens the role of PAs by supporting and encouraging membership in MOAPA.
From our MOAPA President:
Legislative Update
May 15, 2012:
As promised, here is the latest legislative update. It is with considerable frustration that I report that we were unsuccessful in getting our change of onsite supervision bill passed this session. Although the frustration may be there, we did make some strong and hopefully lasting relationships that will help us in the future. In addition, we did learn a lot from this session which will help us in our strategic planning for the 2013 session when we will pursue this issue again as it is paramount to our profession. We will be spending the “off-season” working to develop other relationships with physician groups as well as legislators and lay the groundwork for their support of our efforts. Rest assured that your Board will not sit idle during this time!!
What we are asking of the membership are these things:
- Please identify if your physician or any physician in your circle is a member of the Missouri State Medical Association and then please have them contact the leadership and implore them to support and NOT oppose our efforts. Let them know that we support the team-based approach to healthcare and they do not support the obstruction that they have put up against our efforts. Other physician groups would be helpful as well including but not limited to the Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and the Missouri Family Practice Association. Have them dialogue with their leadership on our issues.
- Please donate to the MOAPA PAC fund. This is an election year and we need to have a presence at campaign fund raisers during this time. We have always asked for each PA to donate at least $100.00 per year to this fund. You can do a monthly donation/debit if that works better for you than a lump sum donation. This process is imperative to us gaining maximum access to legislators in order to deliver our message and garner their support. I know that no one likes to part with their hard-earned money, but this is a major part of the process so please go to the web site and donate today or send a check. Remember that 100% of the funds donated to this will be used for this purpose as there are no administrative costs. All info is on the web site www.moapa.org. Please do this TODAY!!
- Identify and contact your state legislators even in the off-season and just introduce yourself as a PA in their district and let them know that we will be pursuing legislation in the coming session. Try and visit them personally in their local office as the off-season is sometimes a better time to actually have a conversation with them about what we will be looking to achieve and why. We can provide any information that you may need so don't hesitate to ask as these visits are very effective. Other things you can do are invite your legislators to visit your clinic/office and see how you function or offer to place a sign in your yard during election time if they are running. You may also consider donating even a small amount to their campaign fund directly. These are all ways to develop relationships as that is what drives much-needed votes.
As we have always stressed, no matter what legislation we pursue, it is a group effort!! The Board is willing to do as much of the leg work as needed but we need all hands on deck. Can you imagine the effect we would have if we had all 700+ MO PAs working on our issues? We have made great strides the past few years with just a handful of active folks so just imagine if we could have all hands on deck with both the legislative efforts as well as the organizational efforts, whew, what a thought!! So if you have apathetic colleagues, classmates, or friends, please inspire them to get off of the sidelines and get in the game as we will all benefit from these efforts. As always, I welcome any questions, comments, or criticisms so feel free to drop me a line or give me a call.
Thanks for reading this as well as for all of your efforts.
Paul
paultwin@aol.com
314-374-8033
