Bulletin (Spring 2003). I find it very attractive to go ahead with an assessment of $1,000 for three years for each neurosurgeon in the country. I believe that many of us are fed up with the current crisis and would like to contribute. What has thwarted me in the past is the fear that no one else is contributing and therefore the financial contributions of the few may go to waste. However, with the knowledge that the assessment is mandatory for all membership, then I have a feeling that we’ll all be in favor of [it]. C.G. Salame, MD, MS, Norwich, Conn.
Editorial Note: The article referenced, “Ending the PLI Crisis” ( www.aans.org/Library/Article.aspx?ArticleId=9864), stated that the Washington Committee of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) “recommended that each neurosurgeon pay an assessment of $1,000 per year for three years” to fund neurosurgery’s campaign to pass the HEALTH Act. Subsequently, the respective presidents of the AANS and the CNS sent a letter to neurosurgeons requesting “that every neurosurgeon contribute a minimum of $1,000 per year for the next several years to fund this campaign.$ The entity created for funding the campaign, Neurosurgeons to Preserve Health Care Access (NPHCA), is a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt entity that allows maximum flexibility for raising funds for an aggressive public education and lobbying campaign to achieve federal medical liability reform. While the contributions to NPHCA are not mandatory, it is hoped that neurosurgeons’ enthusiastic support of the campaign will translate to a mandate for tort reform. See the Annual Meeting feature on page 38 for more on the launch of NPHCA.