Thursday, August 30, 2007

Resolving the list

We have scheduled a meeting with Donna Dossey, Registrar, for Friday, Sept. 7th at 10 a.m. to discuss the list of documents their office will accept in order to get a delayed CBRS.

I am still hoping to persuade the state to accept a letter from your doctor as proof of a stillbirth. What the letter needs to say in order to be accepted is something that we still need to work out, as well as any other physical requirements. We do know that the letter would have to be from the doctor who delivered your child, and that the doctor would have to be certain of the case. "I think I delivered that child" will not be enough. This means that if your doctor is fuzzy on the details you may need to ask for a meeting with him/her and refresh their memory with a copy of your medical file before asking them to write the letter.

However, I think we can lay to rest the "we can't verify that a doctor is legitimate" excuse. I recently called the NM Medical Board to find out what it takes to verify the license of a medical physician practicing in the state. Apparently, it is as easy as a phone call or a web site visit. It is that easy for any consumer, and it is that easy for any state official or employee.

Hopefully, we can come up with a good list that will serve most families. Obviously, we can't account for every possible situation, but we can do our best to serve as many as possible.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Waiting

Just an update.

Currently, we are waiting to redraft the legislation. The biggest challenge right now is that everyone has returned to their day jobs and is a little slow to respond, but that is to be expected. The other challenge we have is going to be getting into the 2008 session.

In New Mexico, legislative sessions in even years (like the coming 2008 session) are short--30 days as opposed to 60 days. The short sessions are for passing the state budget and other "germane" issues. So it becomes more difficult to get bills introduced in even-numbered years. But we will do everything we can to get it into the 2008 session. If those efforts fail, we will definitely get it into the 2009 session.

So, we are still working, but progress is slow in coming at this point. We are learning patience.