Lobbyist for OOPA

Lobbyist for OOPA

Forest R Sexton CPO

There has been legitimate concern in Oregon about the need for a full time
lobbyist. I have been trying to determine how our money can be best spent.
Towards that end I posted the following question on the oandp list serve.
 
   
I am currently Pres. of the Oregon Orthotic and Prosthetic Association. Our
group had a good year last year in the Oregon legislature. We helped win
parity for our state and successfully lobbied our position on two other laws
impacting O & P.
 
We hired a well respected lobbyist to assist us in these efforts. I am sure
that it could be argued both ways as to whether a cheaper and less connected
lobbyist could have helped us achieve these successes but we will never know.
Suffice it to say that the process was not cheap and the expense rested on a
relatively small group of people.
 
The question going forward is what do we do now. There are still 2 or 3
issues left on the table affecting our industry in Oregon. More importantly I
believe that we have learned that if we do not remain vigilant issues can easily
arise under the radar that can impact us. Lobbyists are expensive ongoing
expenses and as many know it is difficult to get O & P practice owners to
participate even if it is in their best interests.
 
Is anybody aware of a cheaper alternative than putting a lobbyist on
retainer. How are other state organizations watch-dogging their legislatures.
 
Forest R Sexton CPO
 
I received the following responses. These are consistent with what I hear
from every political insider that I have spoken with.
I can appreciate your concerns, it has been an issue for the Massachusetts
Society of O&P as well. We worked for parity the first go around without a
lobbyist, we then tried a less expensive less connected lobbyist and finally
realized to accomplish what we wanted we needed to pay for the right person.

We have continued our contract for another two years which is expensive
however those few of us who have done most of the work realize that we need
the lobbyist for state issues. It's a tough sell to much of the membership
to keep them on retainer, many feel that we passed our bill and we're done
but you have to keep moving forward and keep momentum. We are utilizing
them to assist us with the group insurance commission, Medicaid and even
some of the area HMO's...We learned that you have to pay to play...at least
in Massachusetts.

If anyone shares some good alternatives I would love to hear about them.
 
Forest,
I am President of the Pennsylvania Orthotic and Prosthetic Society. We too
are involved in legislation, specifically licensure for O & P professionals
in PA. We are also supporting the ACA's Parity effort here. You are correct
in that it is umtimately the small group of individuals who actively
participate and provide funding. We have been using a lobbying firm for several
years. We are still evaluating their performance. We are hopeful that licensure
will pass here and will probably continue to some degree utilizing a lobbyist.
We urge our members to contact legislators and have had our lobbyists
actually schedule some facility site visits. This year we launched a web site, to
try and present to our members a more viable organization. The more members,
the more support, the more funding,the more voters, etc. etc. etc . We
communicate to our members via e mail events such as politcal fund raisers and
always have a least two POPS members in attendance. I am also an auxiliary
member of the New Jersey Prosthetic and Orthotic Society. They also are doing
things legislatively toward Parity. I think the more information groups like
ours share, the better versed and positioned (politically) we will become. As
informed leaders we might then be able to minimize some of the responsibilty
of our lobbyist. Perhaps a modest retainer for some base services and then a
pay as you go for special projects or services. It's something to think about
 
 
In Massachusetts we have continued to pay our lobbyist a retainer and have
him work on other issues like Medicaid funding etc and also monitor any
objections/motions by ins. companies to the recently passed partiy legislation. We
have tried the cheaper/less connected lobbyist route and it just doesn't
work. You need someone well conncected and keep him on board, it is expensive
but I believe necessary, you need to show to the insurance lobby that you are
serious about defending your position. The hardest part as you rightly point
out is getting everyone to pay their share. In MA we have a dues structure
that is based on the turnover of each company in an effort to make it more
equitable.
Good luck and congrats on your parity success!
You might try to charge your state industry association with the monitoring
and analysis, only engaging the lobbyist for bills or regulatory actions
that require assertive actions.
Dear Mr. Sexton
Welcome to the world of Realpolitik. If your legislature has good web
access of pending bills it would not be difficult for a dedicated person to find
what hammer is about to drop on you, but then what do you do? The main
thing the lobbyist provide is access to the persons crafting and handling the
bills. It is easier to head off or rewrite legislation before it is introduced,
rather then reacting to a bill once it is filed. An example here in
Florida, the state was going to introduce a bill that would require all clinics
that provide healthcare (O&P facilities would have been included) to have a
medical doctor on staff for at least 20 hours per week to act a medical director
and be in charge of billing. The idea was to put a licensed person on the
firing line in the never ending quest to prevent fraud. This would have been
disastrous to our field, as well as others. Imagine paying a Dr.for 20 hours
a week to do your billing! We were able to get the other professions
together and rewrite the bill so there was a licensed practitioner (in our case an
Orthotist/Prosthetist) overseeing the billing and held accountable for any
fraud. The state got what it wanted and we were not unduly burdened. Having a
lobbyist of record puts everyone on notice that the state association is
vigilent and involved. In Florida we pay for our lobbyist by holding
educational seminars throughout the year and our annual conference. Working with
vendors and speakers you can put on a program on the cheap, resulting in a nice
profit that then goes to pay the lobbyist.
On another note, remember that in politics perception is everything. You
used the phrase our industry. Do you still consider yourselves legmakers
hogging out wood blocks, or would the term our profession be more appropriate.
 If you are trying to differentiate yourselves from DME you need to make
certain everyone (especially O&P practitioners) knows the difference between an
industry and a profession.
Good luck
We have kept our lobbyist on as an annual expense, and the state association
pays him. We had a vote at the business meeting of all attending
association members, and we decided to change the cost structure of our annual meeting
to raise enough revenues to pay him. We originally hired him to pass
licensure, and once you have that, it is critical to have a lobbyist at the capital
to make sure there is no encroachment. He has been very fair and does not
charge us that much b/c is not actively working any issues for us, but we are
now beginning the process on parity.
I am president of the Wisconsin Society. You are several years ahead of
Wisconsin. Our society does have committees working on Licensure and Parity. Any
information that you could send to us later (concerning industry lobbyist)
would be greatly appreciated.
 
Is it possible to be own an automatic e-mail list from your state
legislative body (concerning proposed legislation) ? That way your society/membership
could monitor the activities, eliminating the lobbyist. Then when you need a
lobbyist, hire them to represent you.
Having never been involved in such matters, how much is a well connected
person? How many people helped foot the bill?
 
I know for sure that we do not have a large enough voting block to have any
say with politicians.
 
Interesting post.