Legislative Update
Michael Gough, CCP
To
say that the political arena in Madison has changed is quite the
understatement of the day. With
Gov. Thompson leaving office and Secretary Cummings resigning (Sec. Of
Dept. Regulation & Licensing), we will be faced with a certain
degree of unknown in our upcoming campaign.
But one thing is certain – the WPS’s commitment in seeking
licensing of perfusion in the state of Wisconsin.
We
are currently in the process of making necessary changes to the
2001-drafted bill we received back from the Legislative Reference
Bureau. Once a final draft is created we will embark on a flurry of
events whose success will be predicated on the membership’s
involvement. I have created
a series of bullet points to illustrate those milestones.
©
Conference
with the Medical Examining Board seeking their support and our ability
to function under their auspices.
©
The
Legislative Task Force and our lobbyists will seek formal sponsorship of
the bill, from both the Senate and the Assembly.
©
A
Mailing to the WPS membership containing a form letter that should be
written by each perfusionist to their legislators seeking their support.
©
The
LTF and our lobbyists will circulate the drafted bill to all the
legislators. It is our
intention to have the legislators receive the drafted bill and the
letters from their constituents at the same time.
©
Our
campaign would then enter into the necessary committee hearings before
being voted on by each house: Joint Finance Committee, Health Care
Committee, etc.
It
is imperative that your legislators hear from you to emphasize and
clarify the licensing of perfusion.
Without that connection from their constituents, there lacks a
need for involvement and support on the legislators’ behalf.
It is very beneficial if a copy of any correspondence to your
legislators also be forwarded to the Legislative Task Force.
Thereby properly documenting the memberships’ efforts and
creating the ability to reference our collective efforts to certain
legislators when necessary. Letters
can be sent to one of the following addresses:
Attention:
Michael Gough
Fax: (414) 649-3794
Email: goughs@execpc.com
Mail:
2901 W. Kinnickinnic River Parkway
Suite 511
Milwaukee,
WI 53215
I
encourage you to visit the Legislative Tab on our web site.
It contains information ranging from our scope of practice (as
identified by AmSECT) to objectives that should be met when a legislator
visits your hospital. Take a few minutes, acquaint yourself with the material, and
encourage a fellow perfusionist to do the same.
Remember
that the success of this legislative effort is predicated on the
involvement of the membership in this campaign.
