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Sherie Turner,
PA-C
President & Legislative Chair
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December 31, 2007
At 3:15 p.m., the
Governor signs HB 1284 renewing the PA Practice Act for ten years.
December 5, 2007
Please take a
moment to call the Governor's Office at 217- 782-6830 or 217-782-0244,
and please ask the Governor to sign HB 1284 which has the amendment to
renew to Physician Assistant Practice Act of 1987 for ten years.
Below is a suggested letter sent to the Governor's Office by
Sherie Turner PA-C. Thank you.
"December 4, 2007
The Honorable
Rod
R. Blagojevich
<>
Governor
of Illinois
207 Statehouse
Springfield,
IL 62706
Dear Governor Blagojevich,
On behalf of the Illinois Academy of Physician Assistants
Board of
Directors
and the 1,857 licensed Physician Assistants in Illinois, I ask for your immediate
signature
of HB1284 which renews the Physician Assistant Practice Act of 1987 for
another
ten years. The current Act will expire on January 1, 2008. We ask
for
your signature support and commitment to continuing the Physician
Assistant
profession in Illinois.
Physician Assistants provide access to quality,
cost-effective
healthcare for Illinois citizens in
all specialties and settings - many
in health manpower shortage areas and rural Illinois communities. We ask for
your
signature support and your commitment to continuing the Physician
Assistant
profession in Illinois.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to
contact us
regarding
the Physician Assistant profession now and in the future.
Thank you for your time and prompt attention to this
matter.
Respectfully yours,
Sherie Sarff Turner, PA-C, President
Illinois Academy of Physician Assistants"
November 30, 2007
HB 1284, which
renews the PA Practice Act of 1987, was sent to the Governor's Office
for signature.
November 2, 2007
The legislators
seemed to have received our message from the numerous phones calls made
to the Speaker of the House and to the House of Representatives. HB 1284, which renews the PA Practice Act
with Amendment #1, passed the House with a vote of 113 to 0 at 10:25
a.m. this morning! Rep. Beth Coulson introduced HB
1284 for Concurrence in the House. It was the first bill to be
called. She remarked that she has received numerous calls from PAs
asking that HB 1284 be passed. It was!!
Now HB 1284 will go on to the Governor's desk for signature.
Thank you for ALL YOUR PHONES CALLS!!! We appreciate the time
taken to do some grassroots lobbying!!
Sherie Turner, PA-C
November 1, 2007
Rep. Saviano filed a motion to
concur for HB 1284 this morning. The amendment on HB 1284 renews
the PA Practice Act of 1987. The bill was posted to the House
Rules Committee. The House Rules Committee at noon posted it to
the House Reg. & Reg. Committee. It was determined that the
House Reg. & Reg. Committee would convene at 4:00 p.m. today with
only HB 1284 on it's agenda. After a delay getting started at
4:00 p.m., HB 1284 passed the House Reg & Reg Committee for a
motion to concur. Our hope is that HB 1284 will be called by the
Speaker of the House Madigan in the next few days to be passed on the
House Floor. It would then journey to the Governor's desk.
Rep.
Coulson and Rep. Fegenholtz commended the PAs for all the phone calls
received recently!! Please continue to call House Speaker Madigan's office and ask
to speak to his Chief of Staff Tim Mapes (217)782-6360. Please
infomr Mr. Mapes that the PAs "wish to have HB 1284 called for a
vote. It is important to us to renew the PA Practice Act to
continue providing quality care to patients in Illinois."
October
25,
2007
Hello Everyone,
I talked with Rep. Saviano regarding SB 149 and HB 1284 that renews the
PA Practice Act. He said he added the amendments to SB149 to draw
attention to our bill and try to get it called by the House Speaker.
Our bill was up for third reading and vote when the first amendment was
added by Rep. Saviano. He assured me he supports PAs, as he states he
has in the past, and he had nothing to gain by delaying passage of
SB149. He suggests we call the House Speaker Madigan's office and ask
to speak to his Chief of Staff Tim Mapes (217)782-6360 asking that the
House Speaker Madigan call SB 149 and HB 1284 to a vote.
I just spoke with my State Rep. Jil Tracy. She said the best approach
at this time is for IL PAs to contact their State House Representatives
and ask that SB 149 and HB 1284 be called for a vote and passage
immediately. She said there is so much legislation pending that our
bills might just get lost if we don't put pressure on our
representatives. To find your Representative's phone number, go
to www.ilga.gov. Click on Members. If you do not know who
your House Representative is, go then click on "Legislative look-up"
found on the same page.
So, please
get the word out and contact your legislators NOW. -Sherie
Turner, IAPA President
October 11,
2007
In a surprise move, Senator Carol Ronen, introduced
an amendment on HB 1284, in the Senate yesterday at noon. The amendment
included a few Practice Acts that would be sunsetting as of December
31st. The PA Practice Act of 1987 was one of these Acts included. At
3:00 p.m. yesterday, the Senate Licensed Activities Committee held a
hearing regarding this amendment. The IAPA was represented at this
hearing as a proponent of the amendment. The amendment passed as
attached to HB 1284, out of committee on to the Senate Floor today at
1:20 p.m. Senator Ronen called the bill
up and a vote was taken. HB 1284 has passed out of the Senate,
unanimously. The bill will be moved over to the House for conucrrence.
As you may recall, SB 149 renews the sunset of the PA Practice Act as
well. However, SB 149 keeps having amendments attached which has slowed
down it's progress to pass the House. SB 149 is still in the House
awaiting the the House Registration and Regulations Committee approval
of the 5th amendment. It appears that the House will take a day or two,
we hope, for concurrance. It is
time to call your Illinois
House Representative now (go to www.ilga.gov to
"look-up your legislator's Springfield office number) and ask them to
"support HB 1284 for it renews the PA Practice Act of 1987 and secures
the access to quality healthcare to 25,000 patients seen by PAs in
Illinois each day." HB 1284 could come be called to the
House Floor as early as tomorrow, 10/12/2007.
October 4,
2007
SB 149 was tacked with another
amendment from the Emergency Medicine Task Force. Rep. Saviano's
office said that the amendment is uncontroversial and the
sunset will be extended. But for now, we are going back to the
House Rules Committee.
Below is the text change for
amendment #5 which does not have anyhting to do with PAs.
AUGUST 2007
Call your Illinois House
Representative today or tomorrow, August 2 or 3. Ask them to
support SB 149, which renews the PA Practice Act of 1987 for ten
years. To find their phone number, go to www.ilga.gov, click on
"legislator look up" on the right hand column. Or, you may
consider faxing them a letter as well.
The Honorable (First)
(Last Name of Representative)
Illinois
State Representative
Address
Sprignfield,
IL 62706
Dear
Representative. _____,
I am a
physician assistant in your district. I am in support of SB 149 which
renews the
Physician Assistant Practice Act of 1987 for another 10 years.
SB149 has
had four amendments added to the bill in the House. I ask that no
more
amendments be added to SB 149 and that the bill be voted on by the full
House for
passage during this session.
PAs
provide quality, cost-effective, accessible medical care to patients in
all
settings and specialties under the supervision of physicians. The PA
profession
is committed to the concept of the supervising physician-PA team.
Your
interest and support are appreciated.
Respectfully
yours,
(your name)
(address)
(phone
number)
AUGUST 4, 2007
As
of August 24, 2007, the Illinois General Assembly has not passed an
approved budget. The Governor has sent a 79-page line item veto
to the House for review. These line item vetos cut out the extra
expenditures and projects in order to make way for the Governor's
Universal Health Plan. The House Speaker, Michael Madigan, plans
to call for hearings for those affected by these cuts. In so many
words, the Illinois General Assembly has not passed a complete budget
and no other work will be done until this issue is resolved. The
IAPA bill, SB 149, which renews the PA Practice Act, is still in the
House waiting to be approved at it's Second Reading. Then it will
go to it's Third Reading and have amendment #4 added to it by House
Vote. It will travel back to the Senate for concurrence.
Then on to the Governor's desk. Nothing will start moving until
after Labor Day. This has been a highly unusual legislative
session. Stay tuned.
Visit the IAPA "Legislative" page fore detailson how to contact your
legislator.
JULY 2007 ACTION NEEDED
Call your Illinois Representative today! Go to www.ilga.gov. Click on the right hand column at the
bottom of the page,
"Look-Up" Type in your address and your State Representative
should come up. Call his office and tell the staff member that
you support SB 149 when it comes up again in the House for the Third
Reading. Then call the Governor's Office and encourage the
Governor to create an atmosphere of cooperation with House of
Representatives in order to start passing bills through the legislative
process. Click here
to
review the journey of SB 149.
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JULY 2007 ACTION NEEDED
Call your Illinois Representative today! Go to www.ilga.gov. Click on the right hand column at the
bottom of the page,
"Look-Up" Type in your address and your State Representative
should come up. Call his office and tell the staff member that
you support SB 149 when it comes up again in the House for the Third
Reading. Then call the Governor's Office and encourage the
Governor to create an atmosphere of cooperation with House of
Representatives in order to start passing bills through the legislative
process. Click here
to
review the journey of SB 149.
JULY 2007
New numbers are in from the Division of Professional Regulations.
The IDFPR cites 1837 licensed
PAs in Illinois. IAPA licensed membership is 412, or 22% of all
licensed PAs in Illinois belong to the IAPA. IAPA asks that if
you are NOT a member, please join us. The work done to expand
practice privileges benefits ALL PAs in the State of Illinois.
IAPA is the ONLY organization watching out for the PA interests in the
Illinois General Assembly. Our goal is to reach 600 Fellow
Members by December. Download the application located in the left
hand column, or use your credit card and fill out the application on
line.
Legislative actions.
SB 149, the renewal of the PA Practice Act of 1987, was called in
committee on July 11th. It was passed out of the committee with
approval of a third amendment. On July 12, it went to the
Illinois House floor to be amended, and ANOTHER amendment was
suggested. SB 149 goes back to the Rules Committee. This
was a big disappointment to IAPA. Rep. Saviano, again, amended
the bill in order to add clean up language allowing a physician to
delegate task in the operation of a pulsating light. Rep. Saviano
believes this will be the last of the amendments. IAPA is hoping
for the best in Rep. Saviano's expressed desire to move SB 149.
JUNE 29, 2007
The Illinois House of
Representatives has still not voted on the PA Practice Act sunset bill,
SB 149. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Skip Saviano and is
scheduled for a committee hearing on July 11, 2007. It has
come up on the House floor three times, and has been amended three
times. Each time is it amended, it must go back to the Rules
Committee for review, reassigned to the House Registration and
Regulation Committee, then back out to the House floor. For
details, on our bill, go to the General Assembly's main page at www.ilga.gov. Click on "Bills
& Resolutions." Click on "Senate 101-200" and find SB
149. Look to the detail of all the actions taken on SB 149.
THEN, go back to the General Assembly's main page and in the right hand
column, click on "Legislator Look-up". Key in your address and
your Illinois Representative will come up. Call his/her office
and ask them to please support SB 149 and get it out of the House by
adjournment. This bill sustains our profession in
Illiinois.
JUNE 15, 2007
The Illinois General Assembly
has not voted on the sunset of the PA PRactice Act, SB 149. All
renewals for Practice Acts for the licensed professionals in Illinois
including physicians, nurses, cosmetologists, etc., are up for renewal
by January 1, 2008 These Practice Acts have not progressed
through the legislative process for two weeks. The hold up has
been, in a nutshell, that the Division of Professional Regulations
wants to remove the "60 day" response time to any disciplinary
hearing. This affects all Practice Acts of licensed
professionals. This is section 22.7 of the PA Practice Act.
The flip side, is that the Speaker of the House believes that by
removing the "60 day" response, the Division will never respond in a
timely fashion. They want to have a time limit to the response
time in a disciplinary hearing. Attorneys were brought in to
arrange a compromise with both sides. A compromise was met, and Amendment #2 was voted on to SB
149. Our bill has not been called to the House floor. Stay
tuned. There are no clear predictions. Our hope is that
since the amendment has been added, our bill could be moving again,
perhaps next week.
MAY 29, 2007
Senate
Bill 149 has been amended on May 23rd, (not by the IAPA, but by
the bill sponsor, Rep. Angelo Saviano and he guaranteed that the
amendment is clarification language to the Medical Practice Act and
does not affect the Physician Assistant Act. The amendment is not
opposed by the ISMS, the Nurses Association, nor the IAFP or the
Division of Professional Regulations.) After the amendment was
suggested, SB 149 was recalled by the House Rules Committee, and then
voted out on May 25th. SB 149 is on to the House floor
again. SB 149 is on the House Calendar for it's Third
Reading. At Third Reading a vote is taken.
Now is the time for you, as members of the PA profesion in Illinois, to call your Illinois State
Representative. Call only your Illinois State
Representative, since the bill has all ready passed the Senate.
To find your Illinois State Representative, go to www.ilga.gov.
Click on the right hand column at the bottom of the page,
"Look-Up" Type in your address and your State Representative
should come up. Call his office and tell the staff member that
you support SB 149.
Attached is suggested text or letter
to your Illinois Representative. We only have a few days
to accomplish this task. Call today!
APRIL2007
Spring CME received a rating of 4.33 overall out of 5. 6 or the 7
speakers received high marks over 4.0.
Stay tuned for October 12-14, 2007 for the Fall CME at Midwestern
University in Downers Grove, IL.
APRIL 2007
The Illinois General Assembly has been on vacation last week and this
week, They resume on April 17. To discover your legislator,
go to www.ilga.gov and click on "Look Up Legislator".
MARCH 2007
IAPA had Senate Bill 149, that renews the PA Practice Act of 1987, pass
through the Senate on March 22, 2007. This culiminates the bill
being assigned to a Senate Committee, passing to the Senate
Floor. On Third Reading on the Senate Floor, there is a vote and
it passed unanimously.
Now the bill sits in the House Rules Committee, chaired by Rep. Barbara
Flynn Currie. We hope the House Rules Committee assigns the bill
to the House Registration and Regulations Committee, chaired by Rep.
"Skip" Saviano, who has sponsored the bill in the House. This is
a big step for the IAPA to have the Chair as a sponsor. We
appreciate that. We will keep you informed and ask for you to
contact your Illinois Represenative WHEN THE TIME IS NEEDED. Stay
tuned.
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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE (January 31, 2007)
The PA Practice Act of 1987 will be introduced, to be renewed
until 2018, in the Senate by the Honorable Deanna DeMuzio, (D-49
Carlinville, IL), as SB 149. IAPA hopes that the Senator will be
able to have the bill assigned to her Senate Committee, the Senate
Licensed Activities Committee. You can monitor the progress of
this bill on www.ilga.gov. Click on the "Bills" section and then
on SB 149. IAPA leaders worked with the Division of Professional
Regulations to renew the sunset date of the PA Practice Act. The
Act sunsets every ten years. If we do not renew the Act, the Act
disappears and there is no PA profession in Illinois. It is
vitally important we renew the PA Practice Act. We will be asked
how many PAs we have in our association by the legislators. I
will answer honestly, "327." The legislators will ask, "how many
PAs in the State?", and I will have to honestly answer, "1500".
The legislator will ask, "you are only renewing the PA Practice Act on
behalf of these 327 members? Do the other 1173 wish it to be
renewed, too? Where are they? Where is their voice?"
So I ask you, as a PA in Illinois, please join us, now.
The IAPA is working with the Illinois Healthcare Coalition to
be heard among the other medical professional organizations in
Illinois. We share our legislative agenda with them and in turn,
they share their agenda with us. We do not like surprises.
The IAPA is helping the PAs at the Cook County Health Services
to save their jobs. Funding, 17%, has been cut and a number of
PAs have lost their positions in 13 ambulatory clinics in Cook
County. IAPA is urging the Cook County Board Commission to be
aware that physician assistants provide access to quality healthcare
and are quite cost efficient.
LEGISLATIVE UDPATE (December 12, 2006)
A few PAs met with the Illinois Department of Public
Health's, Trauam Advisory Board. They have been delegated the
task to creat Administrative Rules for Midlevel Providers in Level One
Trauma Facilities. The IAPA was invited to the
sub-committee meeting held December 4, 2006 in Peoria at OSF
Hospital. Statement of Agreements were tentatively reached
regarding the ED setting and the Role of a PA working with a physician,
in the initial stablization of a trauma patient, or the Role of a PA
acting as a specialty consultant, or the Competency plan for CME.
IAPA will stay involved in the meetings to provide accurate and
positive information that will not restrict practice privileges.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE (December 2006)
IAPA is involved legislatively
and this is most important and yet hardest to show its value to
members. There are 1500 licensed PAs in the State of
Illinois. Only 350 are members. It is very difficult for
the IAPA to represent the PA profession with only 25% of the PAs in the
State as members. We do what we can anyways. IAPA, and IAPA
alone, has changed, upgraded, expanded PA practice privileges over the
past ten years. IAPA will continue to grow our practice
privileges. IAPA will continue to grow the organization and prove
it's value to the many PAs in the state of Illinois. Below are a
couple of issues.
1. IAPA
has to enter in to the Spring General Assembly and work to get the PA
Practice Act sunset date repealed from jan. 1, 2008 to Jan. 1,
2017. This is at the top of our agenda. We are all ready
meeting with the Division of Professional Regulation to go over any
changes.
2. IAPA now
has a seat on the Emergency Management Task Force developing rules for
midlevels in the Emergency Mangement Specialty. Surgeons and
nurses alike have the WRONG impression of what PAs can do and their
training. It has been a major education for these professionals
to have PAs sit at their table.
3. IAPA has
been invited to the Medical Provider's table and be represented among
physicians, nurses, physical thereapists, pharmacists, optometrists,
and other medical professionals. We were not aware that this
special interest group existed due to the fact that our former lobbyist
was not very good at his job. He has been let go. New doors
are opening all over for the PAs in the state and IAPA is now standing
there ready to enter.
4. IAPA still has unresolved legislative issues that
we will tackle through the Illinois State Medical Society, Illinois
Acadmey of Family Physicians, and other organizations that can aid our
causes: Unresolved issues include - raising the PA/physician
ration from 2:1 to 4:1. Another issue is amending the Medical
Corporation's Act allowing PAs to become shareholders in their
practices. A third issue is amending the Emergency Disaster Act
allowing PAs to assist in an event of a disaster.
LEGISLATIVE SURVEY (July 2006)
Fellow Physician Assistants the IAPA needs your help. Due to our
limited
resources and multiple legislative issues we need to prioritize.
We would
like to have your opinions as to which legislative issues our resources
should be expended to increase our effectiveness as Physician
Assistants in
Illinois. Below are the three main issues confronting Illinois
Physician
Assistants at this time.
Please prioritize these and reply to info@illinoispa.org.
As always, should you wish to donate time or money to
our IAPA political action committee please contact Kari Anderson or Mike
King, PA-C through our IAPA website. You may make checks payable
to the
IAPA Political Action Committee. Any donations of time or money
would be
greatly appreciated and remember these issues directly effect the
future of
all PA practice in the State of Illinois. Thank you.
Issue One: Medical Corporations Act
· Currently, in the State of Illinois, only physicians may own a
medical
practice. Changes in the medical practice act would allow Physician
Assistants to own their own practices or own in conjunction with
physicians
a practice. We believe this would not only increase dedication to
the
health care of the area we serve, but increase the number of practices
in
medically underserved areas. By becoming full or partial
owners in our own
practice we become vested not only in our practice but our business of
health care and gain ability to effect our revenues. This would
not affect
our current licensure under physician supervision.
Issue Two: Physician Supervision Ratios
· Currently under Illinois law no physician may supervise more
than two
Physician Assistants. However, there is no such law governing the
number of
nurse practitioners. We believe this to be unfair in the
competitive job
markets available to current and future Physician Assistants.
Many states
currently have increased ratios or no limits whatsoever.
Issue Three: Emergency Response Legislation
· Currently, Physician Assistants cannot provide care in the
event of a
state or national disaster without supervision from their own
supervising
physician. This is difficult in times of need and Physician Assistants
need
to have the ability to use their training to help others in these
disasters.
We have all seen the recent events where Physician Assistants may
provide
the much-needed health care in times of natural disaster, national or
state
emergencies.
Thank you in advance for your response. Your help is greatly
appreciated.
If I can be of any assistance please contact me at mking2@speednet.com.
Mike King, PA-C
IAPA LEGISLATION DEFEATED (March 2006)
IAPA had introduced pieces of legislation that was defeated in the
General Assembly.
HB 4706 Amended the Medical Practice Act of 1987 to increase the ratio
of supervising physician to PA from 1:2 to 1:4. This is greatly
needed in the underserved and rural areas of the State of Illinois.
This was defeated in February.
HB 4549 Amended the Medical Corporation Act to allow PAs to become
shareholders in a medical practice. This was defeated in February.
SB 2275 Amended the Illinois Vehicle Code for a PA to sign the
examinations under the Code. This was defeated in February.
IAPA BOARD RETREAT (January 2006)
Ann Browning PA-C brought the IAPA leadership together for the annual
Long Range Planning Session of the IAPA. At this meeting,
committee set to
work and prioritize the activities and goals are set with budget
restrictions
in mind.
This year IAPA had the following group shot taken!
(l to r, front row) Melissa Smoot, Randall Wilcoxen, Ann
Browning, Sherie Turner and Laurie Dunn
(le to r, back row) Jim Martin, Carmen Coad, Harry Shah,
Jacqueline Spiegel, Karen Chamness, Kathy Dodd
Dawn LaBarbera, Dawn Jenkins, Marsha Meiners, Sharon Blattner, Kris
Healy, Mike King and Steve Bergstrom.
The
legislative committee is busy working on several key legislative issues
including
the supervision
ratio increase and the emergency response bill. The supervision ratio
is
currrently set to 1:2 with each physician
being limited to 2 PAs. This issue is problematic for many physicians
who
provide care to patients in underserved areas. The medical malpractice
crisis
in the state has caused many physicians to move out of state, which has
made
it difficult for some patients to have reasonable access to healthcare.
Increasing
the supervision ratio will allow these physicians to provide access to
excellent
healthcare in these underserved areas and will open up new job
opportunities
for PAs. We are supporting this legislation and feel it is vital to the
healthcare
needs of the people of Illinois.
The
Emergency Response legislation is also crucial to the State of
Illinois.
Currently, PAs cannot provide care in the event of a state or national
disaster
without supervision from their own supervising physician. This is
difficult
in times of need and PAs need to have the ability to use their training
to
help others in these disasters. We learned how difficult it can be in
the
State of Florida during the hurricanes of 2004. In addition, the
Illinois
Medical Emergency Response Team (IMERT) and many other local disaster
response
teams need highly trained volunteers to help maintain their readiness.
The
Emergency Response legislation would authorize PAs to respond to a
state
or national disaster so they can work alongside the other medical
volunteers
to provide care. We are supporting this legislation and feel it is
crucial
to the emergency response teams and the people in the State of Illinois.
LINKS
We would encourage you to contact
a
member of the committee that will be discussing these bills. The two
committees
that will be reviewing the bill are the House
Registration
and Regulation Committee and the Senate
Licensed
Activites Committee.
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