Insight Matters
Spring, 2002

The End of the Line … or Perhaps the Beginning?
by Robert Ronis, M.D., Immediate Past President

We learned at last night's Council meeting that we may be on the road to a budget crisis. Fortunately, we are recognizing the signs early, and will have the opportunity to make the necessary course adjustments to insure the future of our Association. Unfortunately, we may have to consider some hard choices, such as a dues increase - our first since 1998.

In part, we can point to inflation as a major culprit. Our reserves are in actuality $30,000 greater than they were four years ago: But after adjusting our total reserves to account for changes in the Consumer Price Index since 1998, we find that our reserve is worth $20,000 less than in 1998.

Still, inflation is only part of the problem: The bigger issue is membership. Membership in the APA and its district branches has been falling: Last fall we were recognized by the APA Assembly for having among the lowest membership declines among the larger DB's: Last night however, we learned that nearly 100 of our members are currently on the APA's "drop list" for nonpayment of dues. This loss of membership, should it continue, will ultimately threaten our representation in the APA Assembly - and is the greater factor in our impending financial instability.

So why are we losing members? Some have suggested the increasing numbers of employed physicians may be one reason; particularly as employers limit benefits which might in past have supported organizational dues. Others have suggested the rising cost of doing business has left such "elective" expenses as OPA/APA membership a luxury less of us can afford. Others point to the increasing number of subspecialty organizations…still others wonder if the troubles at our national office including the downgrading of the long-popular APA-sponsored malpractice insurance is making that high APA pricetag more than many will care to spend.

And yet, I have to wonder: Why, in this time when our professional identities are challenged more than ever before - by the continuing ravages of Managed Care, by the increasing threats from our other mental health colleagues to our scope of practice - why when our public systems are virtually bankrupt…when legal battles over the privacy of our patients' medical records and the sanctity of physician/patient confidentiality is threatened…when our fight for parity has yet to be won…

Why should membership in the one organization representing our profession as a whole even be an issue? Who could question the critical importance of supporting the strongest organized effort to champion our livelihoods and our ability to serve our charges, to protect and defend our ability to continue to do what we have learned to do so well?

Perhaps it is the complacency of those trusting that the APA and OPA will persevere, with or without their support, or perhaps as it has been suggested it is that our members don't really know what the OPA does - or has done for them lately.

As a partial answer to that question, I would use the traditional prerogative of bestowing the OPA "President's Award" to a few individuals whose contributions over the past year best exemplify and promote the mission of our organization, and perhaps typify just what the OPA, through the contributions of its many volunteers, has done for all of us lately.

To S. R. Thorward, whose tireless efforts as Chair of our Governmental Relations Committee has assured that our voice has been heard in our continuing struggle for parity and equity in health care entitlements and insurance; and in the endless task of explaining to our legislators and politicians that psychiatrists and psychologists are not the same; and that psychiatrists are medical physicians…

To Charles Bensonhaver, whose representation of the OPA at the Ohio State Medical Association has kept our voice present within the ranks of our medical colleagues; who as head of OPPAC has kept us vigilent to to our responsibilities and our power to impact the political system;

To Douglas Lehrer, who as Chair of the OPA's Program Committee for the past four years has listened and responded to the membership, by providing the highest quality, non-biased and scientifically significant continuing medical education available to Ohio's psychiatrists;

To Marion Sherman, who as a new appointee assumed impressive leadership of our moribund Electronic Communications and Disaster Committees …

To all these exceptional individuals, and to all of our Officers, Committee Chairs, Councilors, local chapter leadership and all the volunteers whose efforts bring our organization to life, I extend my profound thanks and gratitude. And to those who wonder "what has the OPA done for me lately," I offer these as just a few examples of what our does for us every day - by advocating for our profession and our patients; by mobilizing our energies and efforts to better serve ourselves and our charges; by educating us to the ever growing scientific basis, the art and the values to which our profession so proudly aspires.

It has been a privilege to serve as your president, and I look forward to continuing to serve in the coming years.

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