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MOAPA Online: Welcome to the Web site of the Missouri Academy of Physician Assistants. MOAPA serves the needs of PAs and PA Students who work or reside in the state of Missouri. MOAPA's web-site 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.

President's Corner
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The Organization Formerly Known as MAPA

The Missouri Academy Board of Directors has recently voted to change the name of MAPA to MOAPA. A new logo has been designed to recognize this change and this will be placed on all of our correspondences starting immediately. This changed was felt to be beneficial to the organization in order to help distinguish us from the other "M" states and further identify us as being the Missouri chapter. I hope that you will join us in embracing this name change and begin to refer to your state chapter as MOAPA during your conversations.

Looking forward to a productive 2010,

MOAPA Board of Directors

Click Here to View the Brand New MOAPA Logo!

President's Corner

Greetings fellow Missouri PAs. I trust that everyone has fully recovered from the holidays and that you are now settled back into the routines of life. I hope the holidays were joy-filled for all. Along with the New Year comes a new legislative session, so this seems like a great time for some updates on the activities of MOAPA. Since the passage of our controlled substance bill last session, we have been working with the Board of Healing Arts as well as the BNDD (Bureau of Dangerous Drugs) to work through the rules and regulations process for the new law. There are some minor language adjustments that we will be introducing this session to help with this process. The first bit of news you have already received regarding the new name of our organization. We are now MOAPA! I hope this change has been welcomed by you and all of your colleagues.

HB 1738 has been introduced this week to the House of Representatives which encompasses several PA issues in one bill. I encourage everyone to go to the house website and read the summary of this bill for themselves. This bill will help further clarify the offsite waiver process for PAs working in rural health clinics. If this bill passes, it will make it so that PAs working in rural clinics will have an offsite supervision that will follow federal guidelines and will allow that as long as the clinic maintains its location, as well as its rural health care clinic status, renewal waivers will not be needed. It is very important for PAs in these practices to be able to set up residence and feel confident that their jobs will be secure from a waiver standpoint. This should also help potential employers feel more comfortable hiring PAs to help been combat the issues of health care access in these critical areas.

This bill will also provide for a language change in the original prescriptive law that was passed many years ago. This will be necessary to help facilitate the rules and regulations process of our controlled substance law as well as further clarify our prescriptive laws.

We also have plans to introduce legislation that would allow PAs to write for handicapped license plates. PAs are currently identified on the DMV forms as not permitted to write for these so if passed, this bill will change that. This will be introduced in the near future and, as always, this information will be conveyed as it becomes available.

We need everyone to be involved in the legislative process. Our bill has not been assigned to committee yet, so we do not have a set hearing date, but we will provide that information as soon as it is available. In the meantime, we still need everyone to find out who their state representative as well as senator currently are by clicking here or here. All you need is your 9 digit zip code and all of the contact information will be provided for you. Take a minute to drop them a note and let them know that you are a PA in their district. Let them know to look out for this bill at some point and ask for their support. Also, please find out who represents your physicians in Jefferson City as we will need their support, phone calls, letters and emails as well.

We must feel good about the progress we have made over the past several years, but we must also realize that there is still work to be done. I am hopeful that these proposed legislative changes will address some of the work that needs to be done. As always, we need the involvement of every PA in this state. If we want to continue to move this profession forward and continue to provide quality healthcare to the people of Missouri, then we need the engagement of all 600 PAs in Missouri — not just the 100 or so involved members — trying to do the work for all. Please encourage all PAs that you encounter to get involved in the activities of their profession. As always, I welcome your calls or emails with any questions, comments or suggestions about how MOAPA can serve you and your needs better. Thanks for taking the time to read this, as well as for the work you do to help promote our profession.

Paul Winter, PA-C
President, Missouri Academy of Physician Assistants (MOAPA)
paultwin@aol.com

 
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