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12/06/2012

Action Needed on HB284 - Schedule II

PAs - Do You Want Schedule II?  Then OAPA Needs Your Help!

We need you to make three phone calls or send three emails IMMEDIATELY.

Substitute HB284 – the PA bill that includes Schedule II prescriptive authority was passed by the Senate Health Committee on December 5.  The bill now needs to go to the Senate floor and then back to the House floor for concurrence.  We need your help encouraging Senate and House leadership to put the bill on both floors next week.

Call or Email #1 – Senate President Niehaus.  Ask him to please put HB284 on the Senate agenda for Tuesday, December 11.  Contact Senate President Tom Niehaus at 614/466-8082 or sd14@senate.state.oh.us

Call or Email #2 – House Speaker Batchelder.   Ask him to please concur HB284 and put it on the House agenda for concurrence on Wednesday, December 12.  Contact Speaker of the House William Batchelder at 614/466-8140 or district69@ohr.state.oh.us

Please convey to both President Niehaus and Speaker Batchelder the importance of HB 284 to your profession.  Keep your comments brief but explain that the bills need to be placed on the floor for votes so PAs can continue to do good work while improving patient access to quality care.  You can explain that OAPA has been working on the bill for three years and that HB 284 has no opposition.  Give one specific example how the bill will improve your practice.  If neither of them are unavailable, please convey the same information to his Aide to pass on. Please provide OAPA with any feedback you receive after making contact.

Call or Email #3 – Your State Senator

It is very important that you contact your State Senator before next week’s floor vote and encourage them to support Substitute HB284.  If your legislator is unavailable, please convey the same information to his or her Aide to pass on. Please provide OAPA with any feedback you receive after making contact.

Find My Senator

What to Say:

You are a PA living in his or her district and would like to encourage him or her to support Substitute HB284. The bill will:

Allow PAs to provide care and treatment during times of natural disaster under the supervision of another physician.

Improve the process for amending the PA formulary in response to the Medical Board’s desire to update the formulary in a more timely fashion.

Give PAs Schedule II prescriptive authority.

Exempt out of state PAs from the prescriptive provisional period when they already have prescriptive authority from another jurisdiction.

Allow PAs to bill Medicaid directly at a rate less than their supervising physician.

Allow US Military veterans to obtain a license and prescriptive authority in Ohio without holding a Masters Degree as long as they have practiced as a PA-C for three years in the military or veteran’s administration.

Tell him or her that Substitute HB284 will increase the ability of your supervising physician to fully utilize you to serve patients in a timely and responsive manner.

Ask him or her if he would like more information on the profession and if he or she does, talk about what you do.

In closing, encourage him or her to support Substitute HB284.

Again, pick one or two items that are most applicable to you and keep your comments brief but impactful.  Thank you very much for taking the time to make this important call or email.

Beth Adamson
OAPA
800/292-4997
oapa@ohiopa.com

 

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