My answer: Licensing.

Insurance pays or reimburses for 'licensed' HCPs but not for 'registered'
HCPs.
And the lawyers prefer 'licensed' HCPs for liability reasons. 
It holds up better in court - at least in their view.
But to IBCLCs, this will be a duplication of reviewing and monitoring of
our practice skills. The IBLCE and the state's Board may have very
different views of what IBCLC competence is. And that will affect our
Professional Liability insurance coverage and rates.

So how does one get the IBCLC included in their individual state's HCP
licensing laws? You must 'sell' your state legislators on the radical new
idea that there is a real public health risk in feeding formula to babies.
Yes, we can produce studies up the wazoo, but they may want actual case
histories of problems in their own state (in the USA) before they consider
it a REAL problem. Remember that statistics don't always apply to
individuals. They may not invest state tax money to create a Review Board
without this proof. Then there's the issue of the periodic licensing fees
each IBCLC would have to pay their own state's Board. That's one more cost
of doing business along with Liab Ins, ILCA membership, conferences...

Any takers? Try reviewing your own state's licensing laws for RT, OT, PT,
etc. We should fit in that category. Don't all of these have specific
training programs? Do they require supervised clinical hours before being
certified or licensed to practice?

Then again, if we were licensed, maybe there wouldn't be such groaning
(from the public and from referring HCPs) at the idea of actually paying us
for our consultation services! For some reason, there's a perception that
we should work for free, or for an amount no more than our hospital hourly
net.


Phyllis
BTW: I'm one of the few non-RN IBCLCs working in a hospital.


 Debbie Albert, RN, Ph.D., IBCLC, LMHC, says:



>     I am especially concerned about this  because there is no focus in 

> lactation at nursing schools.  I felt that I  got a descent MEDICAL
education, but 

> lactation was a page in the OB  text.  WHY IS AN RN A PRIORITY
CREDENTIAL?  Why 

> are we  not educating the medical community about what an IBCLC education
can 

>  provide?  Perhaps the problem is that it is a credential and not a 
degree?  

> Why are they hiring an RN if she will plan to get the  IBCLC credential 

> within a year or two?  No one would hire an RN to be a  respiratory
therapist if 

> they promised to be credentialed within the year--would  they?  What type
of 

> care are mothers getting if their Lactation Specialist  is just working
on 

> certification?  

  

--- Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC
--- Glendale, AZ, USA
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