On Sat, 7 Dec 1996 07:32:31 EST, Karen Zeretzke wrote:
>        Had lunch with some colleagues today (thanks again, Lois!) and an
>interesting idea was raised:  if all the LCs in town got together and
>formed a business and could contract out LC services:  hospital, ped
>practices, home visits, private--whatever.  ER docs and radiologists do
>this...why not LCs?

I saw this and thought:  "What a wonderful idea!"  Then I wondered who
would be eligible - would you accept non-IBCLC LC's?  What about
students?  As a male student, I have found it impossible to link up with a
mentor LC.  Would such an organization provide mentor services for all
students?

I think a professional corporation would work, and could negotiote with
managed care providers and hospitals as service providers.  They could
also negotiate for professional liability insurance and healthcare coverage
better than individual LC's can, but would really need to be much larger
than a single area to be effective.  (The question then arises, could ILCA
do this even better?)

Finally, we already have hospitals designating nurses (untrained as LC's)
as staff LC's.  If we tried to contract with them as outsiders, would that
increase this?  Physicians have a monopoly on their services, which we
don't, and won't until we can get state licencing for LC's.

Jonathan
          L. Jonathan Kramer, P.E.
   Graduate Breastfeeding Counselor and
       Student Lactation Consultant
     Certified Medela Nursing Bra Fitter
Only G-d knows the formula for mother's milk