Lobby Day
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By Mark Bouziane, PT, and Tom Bohanon, DPT
On January 17th, the VPTA held its annual Lobby Day at the General Assembly. Due to renovations at the capitol, our state legislators were moved to the Pocahontas Building. Our delegation consisted of a small group of members (Josh Bailey, Tom Bohanon, Geoff Gunther, Amber Walter, Brandon Smith, and Mark Bouziane).
During our scheduled meetings, we discussed several health care issues, such as:
- #ChoosePT - our national campaign that raises awareness about the risks of opioids and the safe alternative of physical therapy for chronic pain management;
- Licensure Compact - to increase consumer access to physical therapy services by reducing regulatory barriers to interstate mobility and cross-state practice; The licensure compact will allow Clinicians for Licensure privileges in Compact member states without going through the process of full licensure. This is a legislative initiative we will work on in the future.
- Fall Prevention Week - (House Joint Resolution), which will be the 3rd week of September, to address the leading cause of unintentional fatal and nonfatal injuries and hospitalizations among Virginians 65 and older; and,
- Debility Placard - that would add physical therapist to the current list of providers (MD, PA, NP), based on test and measures utilized by our profession to determine a clients’ functional disability.
Additionally, several of our legislators were interested in discussing Medicaid expansion, which is on the new governor’s agenda to complete. They also discussed how to improve access to quality health care for their constituents in under-served areas of the commonwealth.
While we had a very successful day, we strongly recommend that all members (PTs, PTAs and students) contact their legislators to set up meetings during the current session of the General Assembly in order to discuss these and other health care issues that may arise.
