ACTION ALERT: Please call the House Health and Welfare Committee in favor of HB 393 which adds patient protections re access to drugs. HB 393 is one of those bills which removes restrictions such as prior authorization or step therapy and restores current protections which were left out of the Bayou Health Managed Care plans now in place for Medicaid.

Also, if you are in Baton Rouge Wednesday, come to the House Health and Welfare on Wednesday, 9 a.m. and file a card in favor of this bill. 

See talking points about this bill below.
To find out how to call a legislator on this committee, click Here.

Baton Rouge, LA– The Louisiana State Medical Society and the Louisiana Ophthalmology Association are teaming up to oppose HB 527, a bill recently filed in the Louisiana House of Representatives that would permit optometrists—non-physicians without a medical degree—to  perform a wide range of eye surgery using surgical instruments such as scalpels, lasers, and needles.   

Under current law, anyone performing eye surgery in Louisiana must be a physician licensed to practice medicine by the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners.  This requirement ensures that patients have the highest standards of surgical safety. However, if HB 527 becomes law, optometrists, who are not physicians, would be permitted to surgically operate on the eyes.  Leaders within the state’s medical community warn that legislation allowing eye surgery without a medical degree places patients at grave risk.

WHO:       United States Senator Mary Landrieu will be joined by LtGen Steven A. Hummer, Commander, Marine Forces Reserve & Marine Forces North; Col. William Davis, NOMMA; Tom Arnold, Chair, Algiers Development Corporation; Rep. Jeff Arnold, Chair, Algiers Development District; Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer; Pat Forbes, Director for Disaster Recovery Unit of the Office of Community Development; Eddie Boettner, HRIECC and a rep. from the Mayor’s Office     

In response to thousands of comments people from across the nation submitted to the Department of the Army concerning possible troop reductions at Fort Polk, Army officials have scheduled a Community Listening Meeting for 5 p.m. Monday, April 15 at the United Pentecostal Church in Leesville.

The National Basketball Retired Players Association (NBRPA), the only Association comprised of NBA, ABA and Harlem Globetrotters alumni, is making good on its promise to return to New Orleans to host a free youth basketball clinic and community event on Saturday, April 6 for families in the Lower Ninth Ward and we would like to formally invite you to join us.