Will you show up?

AAHomecare and VGM will host another virtual lobbying day next week, on Nov. 13, to help push reimbursement relief bills in the House of Representatives and Senate across the finish line before Congress wraps up its work for the year. 

The event will build on AAHomecare’s annual Washington Legislative Conference, which took place less than two months prior, on Sept. 20. 

Managing Editor Theresa Flaherty and I can’t swear by it, but we haven’t seen an additional lobbying day scheduled in a long time, maybe not since what we like to call “the old days.” (Yes, I’m dating us both.) 

The stakes are that high. 

(I did reach out to Gordon Barnes at AAHomecare to confirm our musings, and that he did – on both the unprecedentedness and the urgency.) 

I think this is smart.

Whenever I’ve spoken to industry officials about next steps following a lobby day, the answer is always the same: follow up, follow up, follow up.

With another lobby day scheduled, AAH and VGM are making sure that follow up happens and, therefore, are keeping lawmakers accountable. 

AAHomecare and VGM developed a list of offices with representation on key committees with jurisdiction. Think Ways and Means, and Finance. 

They also reached out to stakeholders who are represented by those offices to ask them to participate. 

AAHomecare has, once again, fired up the Advocacy Associates platform to cover the logistics. 

And VGM has stepped up to share the cost of hosting the event to make it free. 

All that’s left to do is for stakeholders to show up. 

The stakes are worth repeating. Both the House and Senate bill would extend a 75/25 blended reimbursement rate that is currently in place in non-competitive bidding areas through 2024, and the House bill would also add a 90/10 blended reimbursement rate for competitive bidding areas through next year. 

That’s no small thing.

Not when an HME provider’s costs for everything from equipment to labor to rent has skyrocketed, while their reimbursement continues to be tied to a competitive bidding program whose last real iteration was nearly seven years ago, with no real meaningful adjustments since then until this year.