If voting members give their consent in the upcoming APA election, the Association will reorganize to allow it to do far more lobbying and advocacy work than is possible under its longstanding status as a charitable and educational organization, known to the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3).

While the change would be a landmark one for APA, the majority of its district branches already are 501(c)(6) organizations, so APA and its members have considerable district branch experience from which to draw as they predict what the changes will mean.

The ability to lobby actively in the state legislature has been invaluable to the Louisiana Psychiatric Medical Association, which recently emerged victorious in a fight with the state’s psychological association over whether state law should be changed to award prescribing privileges to psychologists. Because it has had 501(c)(6) status for more than 30 years, making it a pioneer in that regard, the district branch was able to hire lobbyist Vera Olds to explain the psychiatrists’ position on the issue to state legislators in Baton Rouge, said Dudley Stewart, M.D.

Stewart, a representative to the APA Assembly and the Area 5 representative to the Joint Commission on Government Relations, commented to Psychiatric News that the district branch "would have been seriously constrained" in its ability to convince legislators to defeat the psychologist-prescribing bill if its advocacy efforts were stifled by its tax status.

Stewart noted as well that while the district branch’s tax classification permits it to expend funds on political activities to benefit its members, rarely in its history has the district branch done so. It has been able to rely almost exclusively on the volunteer efforts of its psychiatrist members, at least until it was confronted with an extremely well-financed campaign by the psychologists, who wanted state lawmakers to vote them prescription privileges, Stewart said.

The Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society has had a decade of positive experience in being a 501(c)(6) organization. Switching tax status "allowed us to change our focus," said Executive Director Gwen Lehmann. "We formed a PAC [political action committee] right away, and our lobbying work increased exponentially."

She explained that while her district branch is a small organization and will never be able to wield the enormous political clout of wealthier PACs, being able to form a PAC "gives us entree to the political system through fundraisers where we can trade on the integrity of our information and the strength of the arguments that we present" to legislators. Moving from its 501(c)(3) charitable tax status has allowed the Pennsylvania district branch to take steps that "open doors and get us a seat at the table," Lehmann pointed out.

Gary Vickar, M.D., president-elect of the Eastern Missouri Psychiatric Society, one of the most recent district branches to convert to 501(c)(6) status, said that while the shift has not contributed as yet to any change in the way his district branch conducts its business, it has allowed the organization to "build up a war chest" that will allow it to go into battle quickly if legislative issues critical to its members, such as granting psychologists prescribing privileges, appear on the horizon.

His district branch’s transition to a 501(c)(6) organization occurred "so seamlessly" that he is encouraging APA members to back a similar change for the national organization on their APA election ballot next month. With the possibilities for enhanced lobbying and other advocacy efforts that the change in tax status opens up, the question of whether APA should adopt 501(c)(6) status "is in my opinion the single most important vote on this year’s ballot," Vickar said.