Home Care, Hospice Community Urged to Ramp Up Grassroots Campaign

Participate in Action To Protect Home Care and Hospice!

The summer recess for the House of Representatives and Senate runs through September 7. When Congress returns it will seek to follow up on the recent debt limit legislation (NAHC Report Aug. 3, 2011) with further efforts to reduce the deficit as well as offsetting the cost of fixing the flawed Medicare physician payment formula.

Since the Deficit Commission, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and the Congressional Budget Office have suggested home health and hospice payment cuts and copays for deficit reduction and/or offsetting the cost of the physician payment fix, the home care and hospice community will have to ramp up its efforts during the recess and beyond to protect the home health and hospice benefits from payment cuts and copays.

Home care and hospice advocates may also wish to raise other important issues over the recess, such as:

• preserving federal funding for Medicaid; providing a fairer, more transparent process for evaluating case mix changes (The Home Health Care Access Protection Act (S.659)); 
• reforming the home health face-to-face physician encounter requirement; allowing nurse practitioners and physician assistants to sign home health plans of care (The Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act (H.R.2267; S.227));
• providing incentives for tele-homecare (The Fostering Independence through Technology Act (S.501));
• reforming the hospice face-to-face requirement and establishing hospice payment demonstration program (Hospice Evaluation and Legitimate Payment Act (S.722)); and 
• preserving the companionship services exemption from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Sample letters and talking points for all these issues will be on the NAHC Legislative Action Network website.

During the recess, NAHC is urging its members and their friends, family, and co-workers to speak out as loudly and forcefully as possible. This is also a good time to thank those members of Congress who have taken a stand against home health and hospice payment cuts and copays. To help accomplish this, NAHC is embarking on a series of action alerts in NAHC Report during the congressional recess. We will focus on a different way you can make your voice heard.

Following are suggested grassroots action steps we plan to cover in more detail in upcoming issues of NAHC Report:

• Attend a town hall meeting held by your members of Congress. 
• Schedule face-to-face meetings with your members of Congress. 
• Invite a member of Congress out on a home care visit -- get the media to come along if possible.
• Attend a candidate fundraiser for a member of Congress and speak with him or her personally. 
• Submit a letter to the editor or op-ed piece to the local newspaper. 
• Call in to a talk radio station and initiate dialogue on home care and hospice. 
• Use online social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to discuss home care and hospice concerns.
• Contact your state's governor and ask for support for home care and hospice. 
• Send a message to all employees of your organization asking them to get involved and to write messages to members of Congress through the NAHC Legislative Action Network (NAHC LAN).
• Send a message to all board members of your home health agency or hospice asking them to get involved and to write messages to members of Congress through the NAHC LAN. 
• Send a message to your past and current patients explaining the threatened cuts to home care and hospice and ask that they contact Congress through the NAHC LAN. 
• Send a message to physicians who care for your patients asking them to get involved and to write messages to members of Congress through the NAHC LAN. 
• Contact community groups such as local AARP chapters, senior citizen centers, and disease support groups explaining threatened home care and hospice cuts and copays and ask that they send messages to Congress for support of home care and hospice through the NAHC LAN. 
• Contact religious groups explaining threatened home care and hospice cuts and ask that they send messages to Congress through the NAHC LAN. 
• Contact health care officials such as hospital administrators and explain threatened home care and hospice cuts and copays, asking them to send a message to Congress through the NAHC LAN.
• Spread the word on using the NAHC LAN to help fight home care and hospice cuts and copays through a message to your email contacts urging them to send to at least 10 more individuals.
• Invite your representative to join the House Home Health Caucus. 

WHAT TO DO TODAY
For today's suggested grassroots action step:

1. Plan to attend a congressional town hall meeting.
2. Go to your Congress member’s website to see if his/her recess schedule is published. If a schedule isn’t published on the website, call his or her local office and inquire as to when the lawmaker(s) will be making public appearances. Review NAHC's talking points/issue briefs on the NAHC Legislative Action Network. Bring as many home care advocates with you as you can get. 
3. Speak out at a town hall meeting about the importance of preserving access to home care and hospice and urge your representative and senators to oppose home care and hospice cuts and copays.