Legislative Update - 27 May 2021

Missouri Society of Radiologic Technologists
Legislative Update

Diane Hutton BA, RT(R) ARRT
Legislative Activities Chair
May 27, 2021

Hello colleagues,

As the end of the Missouri legislative session has come to an end, I wanted to provide our members with an update.

Our bill sponsor, Representative Jeff Porter, carried HB 1426 during this session. We took our usual path and were assigned to the Professional licensure committee. We continued our work with those groups who remain in opposition to our bill. Representative Porter then suggested we consider writing a statute that will be attached to a healthcare bill as an amendment. The end of the session came before the statute could move; with the next session in January 2022, we will begin with this statute.

Do not lose hope, do not cease your fight for our patients. Our mission is true and worthy of our continued efforts; we will pick up where we left off this session. I thank all of you for your dedication and tireless work for all patients in Missouri.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Respectfully submitted,

Diane Hutton

diane.hutton@mosrt.org

Missouri Legislative Update - HB 1426

Missouri colleagues,

I want to provide you with a legislative update regarding HB 1426. As you probably know, HB 1426 was introduced, first and second read then referred to Professional Licensure and Registration committee. What you might not know is we had our public hearing this past Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

Our bill sponsor, Rep Jeff Porter did a fantastic job introducing the bill before the committee. We were rather limited on time, with our hearing beginning at 0800 and only an hour to hear two bills. Although that does not sound too bad, the House was having a Republican caucus, so the committee adjourned promptly at 0900.

We were able to provide some excellent testimony with only one organization that testified in opposition and one testifying for informational purposes. The testimony in opposition was from our usual, CRNA/anesthesiologist groups. We continue to work closely with these groups.

Our lobbyists believe we will have a House vote sometime week. However, once the bill gets voted out of the House it then goes to the Senate where we start all over again. With the end of the session coming quickly, May 15th, our next hope is to amend HB 1426 onto another moving healthcare bill.

ASRT will be sending out an email blast soon so look for that. This email will be a “Call to Action” where we will ask you to begin contacting your legislators asking for their support when the bill comes to the floor.

I ask for your continued effort as we get closer to the end of the session. Keep an eye on the website where I will post updates. Thank you, I am still hopeful we will get over the finish line this session.

With gratitude,

Diane Hutton BA, RT(R) ARRT

MoSRT Legislative Chair

Updated Schedule for our 2021 Annual Conference

Hello everyone,

I have uploaded an updated schedule below.

You can find it HERE.

Multiple Updates!

Hi everyone,

The 2021 Pre-Conference edition of The Radiographer is being finalized and is expected to be released in the next day or two. We have a very exciting Legislative update from Diane Hutton which is included in this issue! Why wait to release this information? Here you go!

March 1, 2021

Hello Missouri Colleagues,

I would like to provide an update regarding our legislative efforts in Jefferson City. What a difference two weeks make! Two weeks ago, it looked like nothing was going to happen and now I can share some good news with you!

As the new session began in January 2021, we had lost our House and Senate sponsors. Our House sponsor lost her primary race for the Senate, so we would have needed to acquire another sponsor there. Our Senate sponsor was uncertain if she wanted to sponsor again this session. Now, do not get me wrong; both ladies have been wonderful sponsors and I appreciate everything they have done for us. However, when we kept looking into the crystal ball, things were looking rather bleak moving into this session.

Move forward to two weeks and things look a whole lot different for sure. With our lobbyist, Mike Grote still at the helm and working the Capitol daily, he was able to conjure up two sponsors for this session. Jeff Porter will be the House sponsor with Lincoln Hough our Senate sponsor. The amendment from the last session was filed today (Monday) as a ‘placeholder’ so we can have a bill number assigned.

The same opposition remains, we continue to work with them to figure out the language that is acceptable to all. It remains a mystery, to me at least, that some of our opposition feels threatened by our proposal as they are not involved in any imaging studies. However, it does not matter if I understand or agree with them, it is important that we work with them because that is their perception-that our bill does affect their practice. We will continue to work with them to come to an agreement for the improved care of patients when they are in our arena.

Look for more information once the bill has been assigned a bill number. Then it will be an all-out grassroots venture and I will certainly need your help. As the session moves along, I would love to have some type of meeting or gathering at the Capitol. I will begin checking out our options once they allow groups back into the Capitol.

A huge thank you to ARRT, ASRT, and other groups who continue to tirelessly join with MoSRT as we complete our mission of having educationally prepared and clinically competent individuals providing Radiology services in Missouri. As we all know, every patient every time is what MoSRT is working towards.

I appreciate your continued support, 

Diane.

Diane Hutton BA, RT(R) ARRT

Legislative Activities Chair

Diane.hutton@mosrt.org

Conference registration is now open!

Hello everyone,

Due to the switch to a virtual conference this year, additional planning had to be made to ensure we were ready to go. The MoSRT is happy to announce that we are officially opening up registration for the 2021 conference!

You can start by registering HERE.

After you register, you will receive an email that will give you a link to register with Zoom. You must complete this step to then receive your link to the actual events you register for. If you have any questions, you can reach out to webmaster@mosrt.org.

A copy of our Conference Package can be found HERE.

Student Bowl 2021 - Cancelled Due to Covid-19

Due to preparing for our first annual virtual conference this year, we will not be having the Student Bowl Competition. However, stay tuned because we do plan on holding a student registry review or something similar via a web based platform in place of the Student Bowl Competition at a later date.

As always, feel free to reach out to any of the MoSRT Board of Directors if you have any questions or need assistance.

Thanks!