Page 98 - 2020 Annual Reports Book updated1_Neat

A long-time goal of AMT is achieving full recognition of AMT’s lab certifications everywhere and among
everyone. One of our ongoing efforts along those lines has been to convince NAACLS, the accreditor of
clinical lab education and training programs, to recognize pass-rates on AMT’s MT and MLT exams as
one of the outcome measures reviewed as part of any lab program’s accreditation review. NAACLS
continues their process of considering this request of ours, although their review has dragged on so long
that it has raised natural suspicions that the sluggishness of their response might be related, perhaps
unconsciously, to NAACLS’s strong ties to ASCP which happens to be a competitor of AMT in offering MT
and MLT equivalent certifications of their own. Although that may not be the case, we have taken the
precaution of obtaining the advice of anti-trust counsel just to help assure that our requests to NAACLS
are considered in a fair and just manner in compliance with laws intended to protect against unfair
collusion and suppression of free competition.

While the State of California recognizes passage of our MT exam for state lab personnel licensure they
do not as yet similarly recognize passage of our MLT exam for licensure. We have applied for that
recognition and are in a queue for consideration.
The state of New York only recognizes a single testing entity for licensure purposes through a bidding
process assigning the contract to a single vendor. They selected ASCP years ago. AMT has twice bid on
that contract and been turned down in such a way as to give us the message that we are discouraged
from re-applying. New York will be a tough nut to crack. One bright spot is New York DOES now
recognize passage of AMT’s exams for the granting of a Provisional license as an MT. Additionally,
legislation was introduced in the New York State legislature this year that would allow the State
Education Department to issue restricted technologist licenses to individuals with an appropriate
baccalaureate degree and clinical experience in the specialties of microbiology and immunohematology.
These restricted licenses do not require passage of an ASCP exam, so if enacted the bill would allow
properly educated and experienced MT(AMT) certificants to practice in one of those specialty areas in
New York. More information on this legislation, which AMT supports, can be found in the Government
Affairs Committee annual report.

Your Board of Directors convened a task force consisting of members of the Board and of state society
representatives to consider ways of enhancing the capacity of our state societies to advance AMT’s
national mission, and for the states to more effectively engage with more of AMT’s members.
Recommendations are now being formulated for implementation. The state societies will always have
an important role in AMT’s efforts to promote, assess, and recognize professional competency in allied
health practitioners.

The Board has also adopted a newly revised Strategic Plan which is in its final steps of being completed.
The Board spent one day of its last Board meeting, along with the District Councilors and AMT senior
staff, in meeting with an outside facilitator to identity strategic themes and initiatives for us to follow
through on for the next three years.

The AMT Bylaws Committee has embarked on a thorough line-by-line review of the Bylaws, something
not undertaken in many years.

For a variety of reasons – mainly that expenses have continued to outpace revenues – AMT’s sister
organization the AMT Institute for Excellence has been formally dissolved. While AMTIE no longer exists
the scholarships, it granted will continue under the aegis of AMT (which is where scholarships used to
come from not all that long ago before being transferred to AMTIE). The Scholarship Committee
continues to exist, but it is now shifted back to being under the AMT umbrella rather than under AMTIE.

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