MATA members:
I first off would like to apologize for the delay in an update. We have been working very hard with our lobbyist on many issues. I wanted to update you on HF 2399. The MATA has worked very hard to educate the legislators who voted against HF 2399 since the licensing subcommittee 3-3 draw vote a few weeks back. We needed to get two members of the licensing subcommittee to become yes votes before we could be brought back up again. Unfortunately we were only able to secure one more yes vote. What does this mean? For the 2008 legislative session we are done trying to move our bill forward as a deadline of passing out of committee has now passed.
This does not mean our work is done, it only means our work has started for 2009. Athletic trainers need to continue to work on educating their elected officials on who we are and what we do. Athletic trainers are allied health care professionals who treat patients as part of a health care team. I also encourage you to have continued discussions with other health care professionals and ask them to support our efforts. Many of you got your physicians involved and this is great. Again I encourage you to keep up the positive education of our elected officials. When contacting legislators please stick to the talking points. We need to keep our focus on the issue of promoting what we are trying to change and not get drug into issues that are not part of our bill.
I commented on the committee process in my last eblast in late February. I would like to touch on this again. For the athletic trainers present at the licensing subcommittee hearing it was a very eye opening experience. For many this was the first time they had seen the political process. It was the first time that I testified in a legislative hearing. As I walked up to give my testimony I could see Gary Reinholtz testifying before the legislature back in 1993 and remember my excitement sitting in the crowd. Unfortunately the process was not as smooth this time. We had significant opposition to our first updates to our legislature in the past 14 years from the physical therapists and occupational therapists. I find it interesting that these organizations are frequently at the legislation pushing forward their professions and the evolution of health care but stand in such opposition of other health care professionals doing the same. There is a significant amount of misinformation continuously being put forth by these organizations about our educational competencies and our skill sets. I was offended at the complete disregard for our educational process and competencies.
What has this taught us? That as athletic trainers who are highly qualified allied health care professionals we need to be more proactive. Everyone needs to become involved in voicing their positive opinion of our profession. We need to continue to do a better job of promoting athletic trainers and athletic training. We need to have many discussions with our health care peers and superiors about athletic trainers and athletic training and get them to support us.
Fifteen months ago when we introduced this legislation very few legislators knew what an athletic trainer was. We have brought athletic training onto the radar screen of many legislators and given them a basic understanding of what we do. We still have a long way to go on promoting the profession but this takes time. The political process is not necessarily considered to be quick so we cannot get frustrated. We already have our author for 2009 lined up. The MATA will have several meetings later this spring and summer with stakeholders in the legislation. We also plan to continue to meet with the organizations who oppose our efforts along with other health care professionals who will support us.
Sincerely,
Mike
Michael S. Doyle MBA ATC
President MATA