PLEASE HELP US OUT !!

Dear friends, family, transplant recipients, bloggers, my blog readers, and concerned citizens :

Many of you have been receiving my e-mail updates in regards to the physician notification legislation currently in the Tennessee Legislature that I have been honored to be involved with for the last year. However, some of you have not been. Nevertheless, myself and the others that have been involved with and working hard for over a year on this legislation need your help in a big way.

Here's a quick update - The legislation started off last year being about transplant recipients. If it had been passed last year, it would have required Tennessee's pharmacists to notify a transplant patient's physician anytime their anti-rejection meds were changed. Unfortunately, we did not have the votes to get it out of subcommittee, so a compromise was worked on during the summer and fall and we believed an agreement had been reached. In fact, this year's version of the bill (Tennessee Medication Therapy Monitoring and Management Act of 2010 -  HB 2655 / SB 2639) is, in my opinion, a better bill than last year. It goes beyond just helping transplant patients but will provide a layer of safety for ALL Tennesseans on a prescription medication. The bill would give your doctor the option of noting on a prescription if he or she wants to be notified by your pharmacist if that medication has to be changed for any reason. Likewise, if your doctor does not want nor feel it's necessary for them to be notified in the event of a change, he or she does not make the notation and it's just business as usual. For some meds, your doctor might want to be notified but not for others. The good thing is that it gives YOUR doctor that option. The bill is NOT about your doctor being able to approve or disapprove a medication change. It is ONLY about him or her being notified by your pharmacist if your medication is changed. Thus, it keeps them in the loop. We thought we had an agreement with the retail pharmacists, the insurance companies, and others to move this bill forward. Now, they are attempting to go back on their word by backing out of their agreement and putting pressure on the members of the subcommittee to vote against the bill. In my opinion, that is unacceptable. This is where you come in. We need phone calls made and e-mails sent to the subcommittee members. Their contact information can be found at this link - House Professional Occupations Subcommittee. 

If you've never got involved in the legislative process, this is your chance to make a difference. Please make calls or send e-mails by the end of business hours this coming Monday, March 29th. This will ensure that the subcommittee members hear from you before the subcommittee hearing and vote this coming Tuesday, March 30th, at Legislative Plaza in Room 31 at 8:30 a.m. What we need is very simple. First, when you contact the subcommittee members, please be polite. Second, tell them that you believe the Medication Therapy Monitoring and Management Act of 2010 (HB 2655 / SB 2639) is a good bill for Tennesseans and that they should vote in favor of it. The reason is because it will improve communication between patients with medical conditions that require additional monitoring, their doctors, and pharmacists which will provide these patients with an additional level of safety.The special interests and their money are fighting tooth and nail against this bill and the safety of Tennesseans. It's time for us to fight back and none of us can do it alone. We'll have to do it as a team.

Furthermore, if you have family or friends who can help with phone calls and e-mails, please pass this information along to them, too. The more contacts we make with the members of the subcommittee, the better our chances are of getting the bill approved and we need all the help we can get.

Thanks a bunch for your help in this matter,

Johnny a.k.a. The Second Chance Sheepdog