Colorado Medical Society

http://dev.cms.org/articles/the-final-word-know-your-legal-rights-illustrates-political-muscle-of-the-h/

The Final Word: Know Your Legal Rights illustrates political muscle of the house of medicine

Tuesday, May 01, 2018 12:38 PM

As you have read in Dr. Bob Yakely’s president’s letter in this issue and in the cover story, the Colorado Medical Society and component societies jointly launched Know Your Legal Rights in April, compiling a decade of victories in the regulatory and legislative worlds on behalf of physicians into an easily searchable database exclusively for CMS members.

As the longtime chairperson for the CMS Council on Legislation, I can personally attest to the involvement of CMS, either leading the charge to fight for these rights and or in supportive roles for our allies to achieve these gains on behalf of all Colorado physicians.

In either case, these wins demonstrate how powerful the house of medicine can be when we work toward a common goal, and in this case, this strength shows through the robust list of rights and tools now illustrated in CMS’ latest resource for members,  Know Your Legal Rights.

However difficult it was previously to find these protections among tomes of statutes, it can be even more difficult to grasp the fruits of advocacy over the long term. Far too often we can get caught up in the details or sidetracked by others’ advocacy goals that conflict with our own.

That’s why I wanted to present a visual representation of just a few of our victories that demonstrate the importance of CMS’ advocacy work and our longevity in the past, present and future.