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END OF SESSION REPORT – May 2004
It has been my pleasure to represent your interests during this recent
legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly.
This session we established and
cultivated relationships with (and in fact were relied upon as a partner to)
many other groups working toward an improved health care system. These include,
but are not limited to, the mental Health Association, the Community Behavioral
Health Association, Health Care for All, Maryland Mental Health Coalition, AMI,
Hospice Network of Maryland, Voices, Nurse Psychotherapy Association, Life Span,
Alzheimer’s Association, NASW MD, Health Facilities of Maryland, Med Chi,
Maryland DC Society of Clinical Oncology, Black Caucus, Maryland Youth Service
Bureaus, and On Our Own.
Our focus was advocacy for issues related to mental health and the well being of
recipients of social work services in all spheres of the health care arena.
The legislature introduced 2,482 bills during its 90-day session. We monitored
122 of those bills, and our Legislative Council of Social Work was influential
in many positive outcomes. Steve Buckingham and I are happy to report that there
was no legislation passed which has a deleterious effect on social workers in
any aspect of the profession.
We focused on issues that effect health care for all, mental health services,
chemical dependency services, school social workers, hospital social workers,
private practice social workers, community health social work services, minority
health care, hospice care, juvenile justice social work services, and all
aspects of long term care.
We protected the right for social workers to provide social work services in all
aspects of the health care arena and to maintain the integrity of your license
authority. Threats to social work practice emerged in a number of bills and we
were successful in obtaining amendments to correct the misdirected drafting of
legislation.
Specific bills on which we spent time and energy related to the following
issues:
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Access to health care for minorities
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Funding for health care in appropriate community settings
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Quality care in managed care systems
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Protection of the public through appropriate representation on licensure board
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Rights to practice without restrictions and in all settings as authorized
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Limiting malpractice insurance costs
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Child abuse and neglect
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Health Insurance coverage
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Longterm care
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Low income health insurance
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Access to health care for all consumers
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Substance abuse treatment discrimination
In addition to achieving our own
agenda, we worked collaboratively with various other similarly focused groups to
ensure that their agendas were achieved. Most notable was the agenda of the
Mental Health Association.
We cultivated relationships with the leadership of the legislature as well as
new and rising stars in the arena of the Maryland General Assembly. I believe
that the groundwork is laid to proceed with any proactive legislation during the
upcoming two remaining years of the four-year term. It was time, effort, and
money well invested.
Alice J. Neily, Principal
Capital Consultants