Contents
- State Licensure Handbook
- Rationale for State Licensure
- The Potential Downside of Licensing O&P Professionals
- Getting Started
- Writing a Bill
- Generate Support
- Know and Deal with the Potential Opposition
- Passing a Bill
- How to Lobby Your Legislator
- The Regulatory Process
- A Never Ending Story
- Now That You Know How, Get Started Today
©2024 by the American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics & Pedorthics, Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this document may be produced in any form without written permission of the American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics & Pedorthics, Inc.
ABC State Licensure Handbook
January 2015
Generate Support
- It may be beneficial to work with related groups of influential providers. You can usually work with the executive directors of your local and state O&P associations. It is a good idea to establish a liaison with these groups at a state level even if you are not quite ready to pursue state licensure. Such a relationship will pay dividends when you are ready to move forward.
- Consumer groups are also effective proponents in most state legislatures, and having them on your side can be a real benefit to your efforts. Take the time to reach out to consumer groups throughout your state and explain to them the consumer protection benefits that licensing the profession provides and enlist their support. Examples would be state/ local affiliates of the Amputee Coalition, United Cerebral Palsy, March of Dimes, Spina Bifida Association, AARP, etc. The close relationships that O&P professionals have with these groups may provide you with helpful contacts.
- Seek out (if you have not already done so in considering state regulatory agencies) other sectors of the profession such as physical or occupational therapists. In states where they are regulated, these professions tend to be fairly well connected and are usually willing and able to help in your effort.
- Your most important advocates, of course, will come from within the O&P profession. An effective grassroots campaign that connects O&P professionals with their state legislators to ask for support and co-sponsorship of your bill will be your most effective tool in gaining support.
