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GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS 2017 Legislative Session: Thanks to Members Who Accepted Calls to Action! CVMA is committed to advocating effectively for the veterinary profession and animal health and welfare in Colorado. During the 2017 session, CVMA’s legislative team was agile and responsive as it monitored, supported, or opposed 18 bills. CVMA’s short list of bills covered many topics and promised varying degrees of potential impact to the veterinary community on animal health and welfare, public protection, the scope of veterinary practice, professional regulation, and the opioid epidemic. The session again demonstrated the reality that regulators, legislators, and citizen advocates all have the ability to quickly capture the spotlight with a wide range of animal care perspectives that demand attention. Through the combined efforts of CVMA’s professional lobbyist, member connections, outreach and testimony, staff engagement, and established relationships with key legislators, CVMA and its members fared well representing the interests of the profession on behalf of its 2,300-plus members. Working together through CVMA, members have the benefit of legislation that protects both veterinary practice and animal welfare in Colorado. These three bills required most of CVMA’s attention in 2017:
a bill that eliminated the restriction to companion animals contained in the 2016 bill. As a result, Colorado veterinarians can now treat all species with compounded medications—including exotic animals, zoo animals, laboratory animals, and horses—in addition to companion animals. The bill was signed by the governor on June 6. Rural Veterinary Education Loan Repayment Program (HB17-1282) Together, CVMA and Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences took a lead role in sustaining the vitality of livestock producers and communities in rural Colorado through House Bill 17-1282. By providing an education loan repayment incentive for veterinarians to practice in rural areas, the bill will benefit rural communities in Colorado that have underserved veterinary needs, and veterinary students who desire to practice in those communities. House Bill 17-1282 establishes a five-member council, on which CVMA will be represented, to administer the program, and provides funding for two veterinarians for four years each. HB17-1282 passed on May 10 in the final hours of the session, and CVMA president Sam Romano, DVM and member Lora Bledsoe, DVM who testified in support of the bill, attended the signing ceremony with Governor Hickenlooper
Veterinary Pharmaceutical Compounding Animal Patient (HB17-1274) Over two legislative sessions, CVMA has invested deeply to significantly improve the landscape for veterinary compounding in Colorado. In 2016, CVMA and its sponsors successfully passed House Bill 16-1324 that made a number of significant improvements in the compounding landscape for Colorado veterinarians, as it: • Provided access to controlled compounded medications • Provided access to resident and non-resident compounding pharmacies • Allowed practices to maintain office stock of compounded medications • Provided for limited dispensing from office stock To broaden the impact of compounding access improvements made in 2016, CVMA in the 2017 session requested
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In concert, these two bills provide clarity and afford veterinarians a wider range of options to treat patients effectively. CVMA is proud to lead the effort to improve veterinary medicine in Colorado and is grateful to sponsors in both the Colorado House and Senate who commitment to enact these important changes.” —Will French, DVM
on June 5. Sam Romano, DVM, testified, “We’ve heard far too many stories from disheartened young veterinarians whose dream has been to care for large and small animals in rural communities, but whose dream evaporated because what they could earn in a rural practice is not adequate to cover their basic needs and service their educational debt load. Their inability to pursue their dream has larger ripples too, from the farmers and ranchers who depend on having a veterinarian available to keep their herds healthy, to the community children who rely on a veterinarian to treat Continued on next page
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