A 16 hour day for the MOA,

I left my house at 6:30 am to head to Annapolis to spend the day with Dr. Mel Shipp (President of the APHA). We started with breakfast at 7:30 am . I was very pleased at the number of OD's that showed up. Maybe they read my last blog!!  Numbers matter and we knocked it out of the park on this one.  We mingled with legislators for over 2 hours.

Our next meeting was "rescheduled" , lets just say politician's schedules are fluid, we headed off to lunch, joining us was Dr. Morgenstern, Jennifer Thornton, and both "Megan's" from the MOA. We had a lively discussion and Dr. Shipp gave us some wonderful ideas on how to get involved in APHA and MDPHA going forward . (borrowed that phrase from Tom Wong )

Next Dr Shipp testified in front of  the House and Senate Committees , he did an incredible job and all the law makers and lobbyist's were very impressed.  Our next meeting was to be with Dr Sharfstein from the DHMH, as schedules go, he was unable to make it , however we did have a his second in command.  we opened her eyes as to what Optometry can do and she was really impressed with our InfantSEE program.

 Then is was off to Baltimore to run my  first board meeting. As board meetings go January's is always the longest with the onset of the new year. We welcomed new GBOS President Jeremy Goldman, we had long discussions on the budget (that was fun), we also discussed HIE, VSP and the AOA (more fun). One thing is for sure there is alot of work ahead of us if we want to be a player in health care reform.
We had a special guest, Ms Maraget Hayes Director of the MDPHA, we look forward to developing a relationship with this group in the future.

One bit of sad news for the MOA, Megan Mason will be leaving us shortly to pursue a new job. She has done a wonderful job over the years  and we will miss her. It will not be easy to replace her.

I would like to thank Andy, Jen T, and Megan as they also put in the 16 hour day , I arrived home at 10;30 pm, and realized that is a long time to wear a suit.

Talk soon.

john