Broadcast is now starting. All attendees are in listen-only mode. Welcome, everyone, to the IHS webinar, The Role of Advocacy for the Hearing Healthcare Professional. I'm your moderator, Julia Bellinger, Manager of Government Affairs for the International Hearing Society. We're so happy to have you join us today. Before we get started, I want to share a few housekeeping items. Note that we're recording today's webinar so that we can offer it on demand through the IHS website in the future. Today's webinar is also available for one continuing education credit through the International Hearing Society. We've uploaded the CE quiz to the handout section of the webinar dashboard, and you can download it at any time. You can also find the quiz and more information about receiving continuing education credit on our website, ihsinfo.org. Click on the webinar banner on our homepage or choose webinars from the navigation menu. You'll find the CE quiz along with information on how to submit your quiz to IHS for credit. A copy of today's presentation can also be downloaded from the handout section of the webinar dashboard or on the webinar page of the IHS website. Feel free to download the materials now. Tomorrow, you'll receive an email with a link to a survey on this webinar. It's brief and your feedback will help us to continue creating valuable content for you moving forward. And now onto our presenters. Now more than ever, advocating for the hearing healthcare professional is critical in order to protect the industry and its dedicated professionals. So what does that mean for you? Speaking on this today, we have Ralph Jackson Jr. He's chair of the Georgia Hearing Aid Dealers and Dispensers Board and chair of the IHS Federal and State Advocacy Committee. He's a second generation hearing aid specialist who grew up in this profession and has been licensed for nearly 38 years. In 2019, Ralph was honored with the James P. Lovell Advocacy Award and inducted into the Starkey Hearing Alliance Hall of Fame for Advocacy on State and Federal Advocacy. After also joining us, excuse me, is Leanne Pohl-Hill. She's chair of the Florida Department of Health Board of Hearing Aid Specialists. She's also the Southeast Territory Governor for the IHS Board of Governors and a member of the IHS State and Federal Advocacy Committee. In private practice for 30 years, Leanne has dedicated her career to adult hearing, enhancing the lives of the thousands she's had the privilege of working with. Today, our presenters have much to discuss. At the end, we'll move on to the Q&A session. You can send a question for Ralph and Leanne at any time by entering your question in the question box on your webinar dashboard, usually located to the right or top of the webinar screen. We'll take as many questions as we can in the time allotted. And now I'm gonna turn it over to Leanne and Ralph with Leanne kicking it off. Leanne? Thank you so much, Julia. And on behalf of Ralph and I, it's our pleasure to be here today. We're so glad that you're able to join us. We know that you all have incredibly busy schedules and we're so glad that you can join us today for this webinar on advocacy. So, I first want to pose a thought to everyone who's listening to this webinar today. I want you to imagine your life without a license to practice. How would you distinguish yourself from a clerk or any other worker in a retail environment? How would you justify your fees? How could it impact the value of your practice? How could it impact your earning capacity? How about how would it impact the lives of your family members and those people who depend upon you, your family and your patients? How would you differentiate yourself from an entity selling over-the-counter devices? And finally, just how secure would you feel about your future? Well, hopefully we'll be able to look at some of those questions and answer those questions today because a simple fact is advocacy. Advocacy protects your license, it protects your profession and it protects those who depend on you. So, let's move forward and consider our future because our future is as secure as our state's practice act and regulatory body that regulates and interprets the statutes and rules that govern our profession. And this requires three key items, vigilance, action and advocacy. So, let's first have a conversation. What is the role of advocacy? So, let's first have a conversation. What is advocacy? What does it even mean? Well, we define advocacy as public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy. Now, that's different from legislation and regulation. Legislation would be the actual process of making or enacting laws by local, state or national legislatures. And then regulation would be a regulatory language and administrative codes that are issued by governmental agencies at all levels of government to more clearly define those laws. So, today we're gonna talk specifically about advocacy, what it means for us in our profession and how we can get more involved. So, let's start. First, let's talk about the difference between federal and state because our profession certainly, we all have state laws that we abide by, but we also have to consider laws at the federal level as well. So, if we consider under the executive branch of the federal government, we have entities such as the Department of Health and Human Services, under which we find the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. We also looked to see entities such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communication Commission and the VA, the Veterans Administration. These are all federal entities. And then of course, we have the other branch of government, the United States Congress, which of course is a legislative body that creates laws. Now, as far as state is concerned, we have the executive branch, which would include the Departments of Public Health. Many of us may be licensed under our Departments of Health. We have the Insurance Commission, we have licensing boards and we have other Departments of Consumer Protection. And then of course, we have our state legislatures, which are where the laws are made. So, we have to consider both of those entities, both federal and state, when we consider our profession and items that can impact our profession. So, moving forward, let's consider the FTC or the Federal Trade Commission. Well, what's the purpose of the FTC? That is a federal entity and it assesses anti-competitive mergers and practices. It protects consumers from unfair, fraudulent and deceptive acts or practices. And it also will assess potential impact on the economy. So, very, very important and certainly can impact our profession. Moving forward, if we look at specifically the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA is something that as hearing care professionals, we are all very knowledgeable about the FDA. In a nutshell, the FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring safety, effectiveness, quality and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products and medical devices. And by the way, the FDA is also aware of the hearing aid rule. They promulgated the hearing aid rule and they helped to create regulatory requirements for hearing aid devices and PSAPs. And we know that there is draft guidance specifically for industry and FDA staff. So, currently all of the hearing aid devices that are dispensed in our country in the United States are regulated under the Food and Drug Administration. Here you can see a great picture of former IHS President, Dr. Scott Bell, addressing the FDA during a workshop on over-the-counter hearing aids just a few years ago. So, you can see this is IHS in action engaging with the FDA. So, as we look forward, the Department of Veterans Affairs, it does determine how they distribute hearing aids to over 9 million U.S. veterans. The VA is probably one of the largest entities in the country delivering hearing aids. The VA also determines who among licensed professionals are authorized to deliver that hearing healthcare. And we're gonna talk a little bit more today about our Fit to Serve initiative, which is making great progress at the federal level. And the implementation of Fit to Serve is we are right at the precipice, and we're gonna talk a little bit more about that in a moment, but it's a very exciting initiative to integrate hearing aid specialists into that delivery network. Here you can see a great picture of IHS Executive Director, Kathleen Manillo, presenting to the VA during a 2018 stakeholder meeting. Again, IHS engaged and working on behalf of licensees at the federal level. And as we move forward, let's think about what happens at the state level. Well, we know that state legislators pass legislation at the state level to create the statutes that govern the sale of hearing aids in that respective state. And those laws will determine the qualifications and the requirements for practitioners. It also determines the laws that licensees must abide by. And very importantly, those laws provide consumer protection, which is one of many, many reasons why licensure is so absolutely critical in every state. Now, as we look forward, let's look at types of legislation and regulations that can have a direct impact on you as a licensed hearing care professional. Well, number one, whether or not a state even licenses hearing aid specialists. Currently in all 50 states in the US, we do have either a licensing or a regulatory structure for professionals across the country, which is a great thing. It provides consumer protection, which we know is so very important. But there's always a fear of deregulation. Deregulation would be if a state decides that for whatever their reasons, that hearing aid specialists do not need to be licensed any longer. So that's something that we must be ever vigilant to be looking out for deregulation in any state. Also, your state legislation can determine the qualifications, including educational and other requirements for licensure in your state, testing validation and verification protocols, advertising requirements by licensees, what would be considered a violation, fines and disciplinary actions, consumer protections, which we know are so incredibly important, insurance mandates, and then business compliance. So things to consider that can all have an impact on licensed professionals nationwide. So let's talk about how we can advocate. How can I advocate to protect my license? Number one, you have to stay informed. You've got to be aware of anything that you may see or hear that can have a direct or even an indirect impact on you, your license, your practice protocols, and your business. And when we say direct or indirect, there are times when there could be proposed legislation that on first glance, you may not think that it's going to impact our profession, but on closer inspection, it certainly may. So you have to be very, very aware. And how do you do that? Well, you can subscribe to your professional association's newsletter. Your state professional association is a great way to get that information or legislative publications that are available from your state. You can attend public board meetings for both hearing aid specialists and for audiologists. Those board meetings are public and are available to attend. And if you're not able to attend, perhaps you can send a person who has been designated in your state to attend those meetings so you have a set of ears to hear what's happening at those board meetings. You can also subscribe to your state's official legislative activity publications and look for anything that may have an impact on the hearing aid profession. You want to make sure you follow all IHS notices and publications, specifically respond to those IHS legislative action alerts. Many of us have seen those action alerts come through our email over the years. Those are very important. That's IHS reaching out to you saying, hey, we need you to get involved and here's how you can do it. And then you can identify key individuals within your state who have reliable legislative information. So as we look to the next slide, there are some more ideas on how we can advocate to protect our license. Get to know your state legislators and those in your district. These are folks who may live in your town. You may see them in restaurants. You may go to the same house of worship. Get to know them. You can find a list of your state legislators in your state's official publication. Get to know other elected officials. They would like your vote and you want their support. So you want to be sure that they know what you're advocating for, what your profession does. Attend and support your state's professional association meetings. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you have a state association, get involved. Join your association and get involved. There, if you attend those meetings, you will keep abreast of the most current legislative issues and the directions that they are taking at the state level on your behalf. And finally, attend and support IHS. They will always keep you abreast on initiatives at the national level. So let's talk about some recent IHS advocacy successes, and we're going to go a little more deeply into detail on these initiatives. Fit to Serve, Department of Labor Hearing Aid Specialist Registered Apprenticeship, a huge win for us a few years ago. The Over-the-Counter Joint Guideline Consensus Paper that was provided to the FDA to assist them in rulemaking for over-the-counter devices. A couple of states where we were able to defeat deregulation, and then finally a win in Colorado. These were all advocacy at work. So let's look specifically at Fit to Serve. This is something that began back in 2012. And while progress may be slow, it is ever-forward marching, and it is extraordinarily exciting. Originally, our Fit to Serve bill, which was 3471, was signed into law back in 2016. And unfortunately, the VA did not follow through on that bill, so we introduced another bill that was just recently signed into law in September. Senate Bill 785 was signed into law, and this bill has until April 15th of 2021, 180 days, for the VA to release qualifications for hearing-aid specialists. The VA then has until September 30th of 2022 to hire at least one hearing-aid specialist at every VA medical center. Let me repeat that. The VA has until September 30th of 2022 to hire at least one hearing-aid specialist at every VA medical center. That is an incredible accomplishment. So ultimately, our goal is that at some point, we would love to have hearing-aid specialists be able to provide community care for our veterans. We have to walk before we can run. This is a tremendous achievement. We are now in the regulatory phase, and this could require a little additional congressional or lobbyist action, but things are moving forward. And here you can see a great picture of my friend Ralph Jackson with his Senator Johnny Isakson. Ralph has a tremendous relationship with Senator Isakson, and I know Ralph is gonna talk a little bit more about the successes they've had in Georgia, but this goes to show you how relationships are so incredibly important. Another great win on behalf of hearing aid specialists nationwide is our Hearing Aid Specialists Registered Apprenticeship. This is an initiative that was started by the International Hearing Society back in 2014, and our final approval was in 2018. This is a wonderful program that, first of all, the Federal Department of Labor has recognized hearing aid specialists as an apprenticeable profession. Number one, that's a tremendous achievement. This program provides financial incentives for employers and for trainees, and a wonderful benefit about this program is that veterans can actually use GI Bill benefits to help pay for training. In some states, you have the ability to get tax credits for employers that are hiring apprentices through this program, and in your state, it can be adopted through your Department of Labor or your Department of Education, whichever entity would utilize an apprenticeship. So there are a few states that have already adopted this in the country, and again, this is not in place of your state's licensing requirement, but it is an additional pathway for licensure. It creates a wonderful opportunity to put apprentices with employers, and you can see this great photo here of IHS leaders meeting with Department of Labor staff back in 2016. So this is Advocacy at Work creating more pathways and more opportunities for folks to enter this profession. Now, let's look at the consensus paper, and I won't necessarily read all of these five recommendations, but this is huge. This has to do with the over-the-counter hearing aid law that we know is still in the regulatory framework at this point at the FDA. We're still waiting for that regulatory guideline, but we did pen a consensus paper with three other professional associations, those associations being AAA, the American Academy of Audiology, ADA, the Academy of Doctors of Audiology, and AFSA, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. We collaborated on this consensus paper back in 2018, and you can see that it led to some pretty significant recommendations for hearing aids that would be delivered over-the-counter, and the FDA has this consensus paper, and we are certainly hoping that they integrate these recommendations into that regulatory framework. We want to be sure that any type of hearing device sold over-the-counter is safe for the consumer. So, again, advocacy at work. Now, let's look a little bit at state advocacy and some of the wonderful successes we've had at the state level. Specifically, let's look at Colorado. Colorado was deregulated once in the past, which caused a massive amount of consumer complaints coming to the state, and thanks to a joint effort between the State Association of Professionals in Colorado and IHS, they have been able to extend licensure in that state for the next 11 years. They've also added a CE requirement for licensure renewal, which is a tremendous asset. So, this is advocacy at work on the ground, and we know that in Colorado, they are safe and secure for at least the next 11 years that licensure will be a requirement. Another win, a couple of states. Indiana and Iowa were both facing deregulation, and this was averted through the extraordinary legislative efforts of their respective state associations and with the help of IHS advocacy. And, by the way, Indiana has faced deregulation three times in the last 10 years. So, something tells me that may not be the last time, but their state association and IHS is ready to fight on their behalf to ensure that licensing continues to remain in place in Indiana and in Iowa as well. And here you can see IHS staff. Oh, sorry about that. IHS staff testifying at an Indiana committee meeting, and there is a list of parity speaking to their personnel. Advocating to be sure that every professional that dispenses hearing aids is licensed. So, looking forward, how can I become even more active in advocacy? Well, you really have to think of advocacy as an investment in your future. The more you put in, the more protection you have, and that means investing your time, your talent, and your treasure. Learn as much as possible about the legislative process. Learn how to read and interpret proposed or past legislation, and that takes a little time to get comfortable with, but when you look at that proposed legislation and you want to bring in the appropriate people to look at it with you, think of all the what-ifs. If this legislation passes, how is it going to impact the profession today, tomorrow, 10 years from now? And look beyond your own experience in your own world and think if that legislation that's being proposed, is it fair to all licensed hearing professionals in your state? Now, how can I get even more active in advocacy? Become active in your state's professional association. That requires a little volunteer time, but it is absolutely worth your time to get involved. Get to know your state association members. Get to know their board members. Draw knowledge from their past experiences, their legislative experience. They're always willing to talk to you about their legislative successes. Run for a board position. Even, you know, whether you're asked or you're not asked, volunteer. Most state associations are always looking for volunteers to participate, and they're eager to find and welcome new members that are willing to invest their time. Seek a position on a legislative committee, and if you don't have a legislative committee in your state, lobby to establish one. What you achieve in your state can make a huge difference. Remember, what happens in one state can happen in other states, good or bad. So, if a precedent is set in one state, you want to be sure that that doesn't trickle down to other states. So, moving forward, let's talk a little bit about a wonderful success in the state of Georgia, and for this, I'd like to ask Ralph Jackson to please say a few words. Thank you so much, Leanne, and I want to thank everybody so much for attending this today and I just hosting this webinar. I'm going to talk a little bit about how to get involved in the political side of it, and it takes a lot of time, takes a lot of effort, but it's really not that hard to do, and you can start out by attending a few of your local city-county meetings, and that's the way you get your local officials to get to know you. Then, eventually, start attending some fundraisers for some of them. Make some small donations. Your local representatives or local county city leaders, we're not talking much money to donate to them, and when you start getting involved on the local level, it's going to lead you, it's just a stepping stone. It's going to lead you to getting invited to higher levels of legislative bodies. It'll get you to your state congressional and senate functions, and this creates a segue to invitations to the U.S. Congressional and Senate functions, and that's exactly the path I took to establish that relationship with Johnny Isakson, and that picture you saw was the last time that I was with him. Michael Brogan was with me of IHS, and he took the picture, but when I walked up to Senator Isakson, he said, I know you. I know who you are. I know what you want. I promise you I'm working on it, and it wasn't about a month, month and a half. Things went through, and I was able to get things done in place for us, and that was a huge win for IHS. You need to encourage your state associations to hire lobbyists. How do you go about shopping for a lobbyist? How do you find one? The way I did, I had a real good relationship established with my state representative. I went to lunch one day, and I said, Ed, how do I go about shopping for a lobbyist? He looked at me and said he'd never had anybody ask him that question. We had a good lunch. I told him how to express what we know more about what we're about and what we do, and he called me back a couple days later and gave me a recommendation of a fellow. I called him up. He happened to be local, and we ended up meeting and having lunch. Having lunch with your lobbyist is a good way to do it. They're so used to taking other people out to lunch. Invite them out to lunch, or even your local representatives. Invite them out to lunch and get to know them, and it's just a great way to establish a relationship. Now, in hiring a lobbyist, you want to convey what you do. You want to express the impact that we have on consumers' lives and how our licensed profession protects, ultimately, the consumer, which is our responsibility. Yes, this is our profession. It's our livelihood, but just as important, we're also here to protect the consumer. When you're talking to the lobbyist, find out other groups that they represent. I was fortunate with our lobbyist that we have. He represents one of the largest healthcare systems in southwest Georgia. He represents a part of the university system down here in southwest Georgia and several other large organizations. I went to a fundraiser one time with Governor Nathan Deal, and Jerry, our lobbyist, introduced me to the governor, and the governor said, without hesitation, he said, you have one of the finest, if not the finest, lobbyists in the state of Georgia working for you. That just really made me feel good about the choice that we had made for our lobbyists. When you're talking to a lobbyist, just remember, everything is negotiable. Don't be afraid to negotiate the fees. You need to explain what you do and what you're about. We're not like a lot of organizations that have a lot of excess money, and this can be done if you carefully work with them. What we did is we came up with an agreement for a retainer. If we have to utilize their services, then we go on a month-to-month basis and go with it from there and pay pretty much the going rate. My lobbyist tells me that he basically does this pro bono, but I don't really believe that. Another crucial thing is, the agreement I have with my lobbyist was we have one person as a contact, and I'm that contact person. So, one person to convey everything, to communicate with the rest of the group, and this just avoids a lot of confusion. If he's getting too much information from too many people, it just creates confusion, and you want to all stay on the same page. So, something else you can do. We did a PSA, a public service announcement, a few years ago. We were going to rerun it again this year, but of course, the COVID has changed the landscape of everything. The way I went about acquiring somebody, I found a retired sportscaster, retired news anchors, retired weather people. They are just excellent people to do this because most of them are well-liked in the community, and to be honest with you, they're eager to get back on TV because that's what they love doing. So, we contacted IHS, and IHS helped us tailor a script for our spokesperson, gave them the information that I had about them, and I was really impressed with the script that they came up with because they obviously did a lot of detailed research on this individual, and our production was just phenomenal. On the production of the spot, I have a real good relationship with my TV exec, and I was able to get ours produced at no charge, and we did a 30-second for TV, which is gracious plenty, and we did a 60-second, which we did on radio. Now, we had a—we spent $12,000, and we covered the entire state with TV. You have to put some seed money out there to get money out there to get it going, and most of these stations, because they have to run so many TSA announcements, you'll get some bonus spots in there at no extra charge. Now, radio stations, I was able to get a particular group to do that for us for free, and that worked out very, very well. Now, just remember, you may have to step out of your comfort zone. I'm just going to be honest with you. Do I like attending political rallies or functions? Not really, but I do it because it's to protect my profession and ultimately the consumer, and advocacy works when we develop relationships, and these relationships take time. It is getting to go into these meetings. It's talking with them and building that relationship. Sometimes, when I go—I've been to county commission meetings, and I've had discussions with my local representative, and I've said, you know, I do not agree with you, but at the end of the day, I respect what you're doing because it's something that I'm currently not willing to do, so be patient with them when you talk to them. They like feeling that respect, and it's just the right way to go about building that relationship, so just be patient. Relations take time to grow. On the left there, you see me with our lobbyist, Jerry Ushry, and then on the right, we have Jason Murphy, our past president, and when we did our Georgia Day at the Capitol, I had a—got a resolution done for the House and one for the Senate, so we covered the entire political spectrum at our state capitol. The capitol days that we do have worked out very, very well. We get a room in the bottom of the capitol building, and we have breakfast catered, so the representatives can come by and talk to us on a one-on-one and senators on a one-on-one basis, and we get a few of them to, you know, to speak and address our group. It's worked out very, very well. To the left there, that's our group. In the very, very center, the gentleman holding up one of the resolutions, that was Senator Greg Kirk. He has since passed away, but he was a fine senator. He was easy to work with. I enjoyed working with him, and it was his pleasure and honor to help our state association out. To the right is the very first capitol day we did, and that's in the center there is former Governor Nathan Deal. So, once again, I want to thank you for your time, and just remember, be patient, stay at it, and we can make this work. Well said, Ralph. Well said, and congratulations to your state on such great success. You've really created a great template that other states could possibly emulate. And if I may, when it comes to, when you have a lobbyist working for your professional association, that's why membership in your state association is so incredibly important, because when your lobbyist goes to speak to your state legislators, he is telling them who he represents and how many members he represents, or she represents. So, there is strength in numbers. So, the more members you have in your association, the more power your lobbyist has when he goes to educate, and that's exactly what a lobbyist would do when they speak to legislators. Legislators come from many different professions, and so the lobbyist is there to help to educate them exactly what about hearing health care professionals, what we do, and why we are so essential. So, if we look back 50 years, even back in the 1970s, there were congressional hearings at the federal level that proposed legislation that could have threatened to impact hearing aid sales and our profession. In the 1990s, AARP published an incredibly negative report. Those of us who have been in the field for a number of years may remember that, which precipitated the FDA opening the hearing aid rule, and it was open for eight long years, and not one change was made, thanks to the advocacy efforts of IHS. So, you can see that advocacy has been important and will continue to be important into the future. So today's challenges, what are we facing as a profession? Ah, well, there are prohibitions on tinnitus management in some areas. There are prohibitions on cerumen management, prohibitions on tympanometry, deregulation attempts at the state level, over-the-counter devices are on the horizon, provider parity for consumer protections, insurance mandates. So we wanna be sure that there is provider parity for our professionals with other dispensing professionals as well. So today's challenges are things that states and IHS are keeping a very keen eye on and advocating on our behalf. So remember, if you hear something at the state level, say something, talk to your state association members, support your state association on IHS because they will always have your back. Know your state association president, your board representatives, and the contact information for those legislative committee members. And again, if you don't have a legislative committee, lobby to create one. Read all the correspondence, stay abreast of what's going on, know the IHS governor in your region, and you can always call IHS at the 800 number here, and somebody can point you in the right direction if you need help advocating for anything in your state. So how do we protect ourselves? Well, we protect ourselves with life insurance, disability insurance, auto insurance, business liability insurance, malpractice insurance, and advocacy. That's your professional insurance, advocacy. So on behalf of Ralph and myself, we thank you for joining us today for this webinar, and we look forward to any questions you may have. Thank you so much, Ralph and Leanne. We really appreciate this wonderful presentation. And now we're ready to take some questions. As a friendly reminder to our attendees, if you have a question for our presenters, enter it into the question box on your webinar dashboard. All right, our first question is from John, and it's for Ralph. The question is, what else has your lobbyist recently helped with? And have there been threats in your state, or is your lobbyist just focused on your lobby day? No, our lobbyist has helped us be aware of other events come up in the state. There was a little bit of insurance questions here, not last session, but session before, and we were able to get a little language inserted into the bill that kind of helped protect us. So yes, he's on the lookout. He and I, we stay in constant contact. Once again, it goes back to building that relationship, that friendship, like I said, we stay in contact. And he has also helped us. Several years ago, we had a sales tax issue in the state of Georgia, and we're trying to put sales tax on hearing aids. And he was key in helping us defeat that issue. So we kept sales tax off hearing aids, and Governor Nathan Deal signed it into law to keep tax off hearing aids in the state. So our lobbyist, he does a lot for us, a lot more than just help organize the capital bank. Thank you so much. The next question we have is from Janine, and she's asking how has COVID changed the opportunity to network? That's a great timely question. You know, I think in some respects, it's created more downtime for some professionals. You know, we're not able to be out and about the way we were. Certainly we may be in our offices taking care of patients, but I think it's created more opportunity virtually to network. And in some cases, I think it's given us more time to be able to do that and more focused time because we don't have the other typical distractions that we would have in our lives. So I can only speak from personal experience, but I think that, you know, obviously we're not able to meet in person at the moment, but I think it's given us more opportunity virtually to make those connections. And, you know, I think that's a positive thing. Ralph, do you want to add to that or do you have any other comments? Well, the COVID, I've been talking to our lobbyists about we want to do the capital day again this coming year, but currently because of COVID, not even sure if they're going to allow people really to visit the Capitol or have those interactions, which I fully understand. And so, yes, the COVID issue has affected some of what we're trying to do in the state, but we're going to work around it. We are in the process of trying to stop having a capital day per se to where we go. We're still going to try to get a resolution if possible and have it read in the House chamber and Senate chamber. And what we will do is we'll get some little information packs printed up and we'll get the lobbyists or people who work with him to put a little packet on each one of their desk in the chamber. So when they meet, they see it and we're keeping our face, our name out there, even through this COVID crisis. Excellent. We have another question about lobby day. This one is from Jen and she says that she's been invited to attend a lobby day, but that she's nervous she might not know the answers to questions. And she wonders if her representative asks her questions and she doesn't know, how should she handle a question like that? And she says, is it doing more harm to go if I come off as ill-prepared? No, the more people that show up, the better. They like seeing numbers. And the thing about it, most of your representatives are not gonna know what question to ask you. That's the purpose of us going and having a capital day is to educate them on who we are and what we do and the vital protection that we provide for ultimately the consumer. The consumer is the key issue here. And that's how we justify our profession and maintain our licensure and our way of life. Great. We have a question from Ryan and Ryan is asking, how do I go about establishing a relationship with a lobbyist? And how long did it take you to find the right person? And did you see any red flags when you were vetting in the vetting process? No, I was very fortunate because how I went about doing it I had established that relationship with my state representative. He and I had become friends and I had that established relationship. So I was able to sit down and talk to him just like I could any good personal friend of mine. And he actually gave me two different names and the first person I called, they didn't respond back. So that was a big red flag not to pursue that one. And the gentleman that I did call, Jerry Ustry, he called me back promptly and we met for lunch and it was a casual lunch, but then again, it was also about business. And it just, we got to know each other through our personal likes and dislikes and it just went real, real smooth in the interview process and just felt very, very comfortable with them because we had a lot of like similar interests. Thank you. We have a question from Gwendolyn. And her question is, what is our scope of virtual networking? I'm not sure I understand the question. Scope of virtual networking? Maybe just some tips on networking virtually. Yeah, well, I can, based on some of what I have seen with some different state associations, they have been keeping in contact with their members during the pandemic virtually. Such, IHS certainly has been reaching out to folks very regularly, which is so important, but state associations are also doing that and creating opportunities to get together virtually for CEUs if online CEUs are allowed in that state. So I think the sky's the limit as far as virtual networking, whatever you can conceive of in your state, I think whatever gets you together with other members is a great idea, keeps you together. It's very easy to feel very alone out there and getting together with other members that are in your profession to talk about what's going on and how you're coping and dealing with things, sharing where you're finding PPE supplies and things like that. And I know IHS has been very instrumental in helping us to find those things as well. But I think whatever you can do, the sky's the limit. Great. Thank you. All right, we have a question from Justin and his question is, what about inviting a legislator to come to our office to see what we do? Is that helpful? I think that would be very, very helpful. Because once again, it's educating a legislator on what we do, the effect that we have on individuals' lives, how we improve the quality of someone's life. And if you invite them, I would invite one and take them through the whole testing process, show how in-depth we are in what we do. And that way you're gonna be able to more easily express your passion, your love for what you do. And then ultimately it comes down to the protection of the consumer. Great. We have a question from Suzanne. And her question is, is how did you find the balance between participating in advocacy work and delivering quality care and time to your clients in your practice? I wanna feel like I'm involved and I wanna figure out where to start, but it's maybe a little bit overwhelming. Yeah, that's a good question. Go ahead. I would say get involved maybe on a committee with your state association and get involved, dip your toe in and get involved on a committee. In my personal experience working with my state association and now with IHS, if you just start small and then you may be asked to do other things and you'll be amazed at what you have time for, for meetings that right now are happening virtually. And generally these committees are, they're full of people that have very busy schedules. So they are always mindful of respecting everyone's time and focusing on the task at hand. So get involved with a committee perhaps at the, with your state association and kind of go from there. Excellent Leigh Ann, you're absolutely right. Start out small and as you gradually get involved in it, everything will fall into place. I have this practice by myself. I have a PCC. Leigh Ann thinks a similar situation, but once you get involved in it, the passion will just seem to take over. It's almost like going to the gym and exercising. It motivates you, energizes you, and you will, the time will happen. It will appear for you. It's a wonderful experience. Yeah, when you see the fruits of your labors, when you see what you've been advocating for actually comes to fruition. Absolutely. Excellent, thank you. We have a question from Diana. And her question is, as it relates to licensing boards, do they have relationships with the legislature? No, licensing boards do not have relationships with the legislature, at least not from my perspective. I chair the licensing board in Florida and we are totally separate and apart from the legislature. So I wouldn't say we have a relationship with the legislature. We are there as under the Department of Health. So, but we do not have a direct relationship with the legislature. Okay, thank you. And we're the same, we're pretty much the same way in Georgia. We're under the professional licensure board. We don't have a direct relationship with the legislature. Great, thank you. All right, we have a question from Sue. What are your thoughts about volunteering for a campaign? Is that helpful? I would say yes. I mean, regardless of what side of the political spectrum you're on, get involved. It's just so crucial and important. And getting involved, that's how you get to know these people. And it will, it's just a way to build that relationship. And that's just a good grassroots effort to do so. By doing something like that, getting involved in a campaign, it's a good way to get involved. By doing something like that, getting involved in a campaign and your particular candidate gets an office, that's definitely gonna make it easier for you to access, to be able to talk to them because believe it or not, they do remember who donates and who helps them out. And sometimes, the physical part of getting out and getting involved is just as important as the monetary. So, excellent way to do it, excellent. All right, we have a question from Jessie. She says, where can I find out when and where licensing board meetings meet and other legislative meetings meet? Typically, as far as licensing board or council meetings, if you go to your state, whatever entity licenses you, whether it's a board of professional regulation or the Department of Health, you should be able to go to a website for your profession. And that is generally going to be public information. In most states, those meetings have to be noticed 30 days in advance or whatever the requirement is in that state. So, that should be readily available on a website. And not only will you see when upcoming meetings are scheduled, but you may usually be able to find minutes and recordings of previous meetings if you want to read the minutes or listen to a recording of a previous meeting. Excellent, great, thank you. All right, we have a question from Sandy. Her question is, is there a place I can go on the IHS website to learn about everything IHS is doing in advocacy? Yes, there certainly is. And Julia, you may be able to answer this better than I, but I believe on the main page of the website, on the left-hand side, there's a bar that specifically says advocacy. And if you click there, it will bring you to the efforts that are ongoing from IHS. Correct me if I'm wrong. Yes, absolutely, you've got it. And what is the web address for IHS? It's IHSinfo.org. Mm-hmm, yes. All right, well, it looks like that's all the questions that we have for today. Thank you so much, Leanne and Ralph, for this valuable presentation, The Role of Advocacy for a Hearing Healthcare Professional. We really appreciate everybody that's been on and listened. And if you have any questions for the presenters, feel free to email them. If you need to get in touch with Ralph, his email is rj underscore ga at hotmail.com. And Leanne's email is leannepolehill66 at gmail.com. For more information about receiving a continuing education credit for this webinar through IHS, visit the IHS website at IHSinfo.org and click on the webinar banner or find more information on the webinar tab, which is on the navigation menu. Also, keep an eye out for the feedback survey you'll receive tomorrow versus via email. We ask that you take a few minutes to answer the brief questions about the quality of today's presentation. And finally, thank you again for joining us today. We'll catch you at the next IHS webinar. Thanks again.

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