NYSCA and Council Hold Annual Leadership Lobby Day in Albany
On May 9, 2017 the New York State Chiropractic Association and the New York Chiropractic Council held their annual leadership Lobby Day in Albany with our lobbyists Amy Kellogg and Perry Ochacher. We had nine meetings scheduled that included sponsors of our partnership bill as well as the Assembly Speaker’s office and the Senate Majority leader’s office and other members supportive of our profession.
Our top priority was discussion of our stand-alone partnership bill and the healthcare coalition partnership bill. There appears to be understanding and support for the necessity of these bills to assist the patient and provider population of New York to move forward with changes in the current healthcare environment. An interesting observation was the consistent response to the sticking point in passage of this legislation - the understanding is that it is not a case of professional bias but an unwillingness to change anything. We are hopeful that strategies implemented and discussed yesterday will allow for a positive outcome by the end of session.
In addition to partnership, we thanked the members for their support of the worker’s compensation IME legislation in the budget requiring the Worker’s Compensation Board to assemble a panel to address this issue. Previous articles discussed the subsequent meeting with the Worker’ Compensation Board.
Finally, we discussed the pending joint scope modernization legislation that will be introduced before the end of this legislative session. Once that occurs we can have off-session discussions to address the need for the legislation as well as begin discussions with other healthcare professions groups, which may have issues with our scope changes.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Amy for scheduling and coordinating this event and all those who participated for their support of the profession.
Front row (left to right): Drs. Bob DeSantis, Glenn Scarpelli, John LaMonica
Back Row (left to right): Drs. Donna DeRosa, Ken Gonoud, Jason Brown, Greg Pasqua, Mariangela Penna, Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, Ellen Coyne, Lou Lupinacci, and Bryan Ludwig