The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) is holding a virtual lobby day for its members on Wednesday, February 6 to continue the mission to keep issues important to home health on the minds of elected leaders. Virtual lobby days are essentially using phone calls and emails to advocate for important issues without traveling to the nation’s capital.
The virtual lobby day is centered around potential co-pays to Medicare home health services, which remain on the table as deficit talks continue. There have been a range of proposals since recent federal budget deficit talks began. They include a uniform 20 percent copay for all Medicare services, which NAHC estimates would amount to as much as $600 to access a Medicare episode of home health services. Other proposals include one by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) of $150 per Medicare episode and another from President Obama in a past year’s budget blueprint that was $100 per episode, but not preceded by a hospital or nursing home stay and beginning in 2017 for newly eligible Medicare beneficiaries.
NAHC members can help fight these proposals by sending a message using the NAHC Legislative Action Network (LAN). Click here for a sample message opposing home health copays and payment cuts. The message will be more impactful if you personalize it with your background and experience and describe the harm that copays and payment cuts will cause patients and providers in your state and district. For hospice messages, click here and here.
You may also deliver the message by phone. You may obtain contact information here: Contact Your Elected Officials. When calling, ask the receptionist to connect you with the staffer who handles health care issues. For talking points on home health copays, go here; for payment cuts, go here. For hospice, go here and here.
For those who are not members of NAHC, you can still contact your US Senators and Representatives through their respective websites. If you need assistance finding who represents you, go to www.wheredoivotema.com.
NAHC also hosts a facebook page called “No Sick Tax” that is meant to bring advocates and home care agencies together around the issue of fighting copays.
Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.
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