The American Association for Homecare is rapidly gearing up for its annual legislative event, the Washington Legislative Conference, which is slated for May 7-8 at Washington, D.C.’s Omni Shoreham hotel.
At last year’s event, homecare advocates made more than 300 visits to their Representatives and Senators on Capitol Hill, in order to garner cosponsors for H.R. 1717, the Medicare DMEPOS Market Pricing Program Act of 2013. The bill would replace Medicare’s competitive bidding program for DME with the industry’s market pricing program (MPP) alternative.
The event provides an opportunity for providers to speak face-to-face with lawmakers about the problems with competitive bidding, and why it needs to be repealed and replaced. To help new attendees with the process, AAHomecare will prepare them for their congressional meetings with in-depth educational briefings, talking points, and hand-outs. The association will even schedule their meetings so that their day on Capitol Hill will be a productive lobbying effort.
In terms of scheduling, May 7 will involve, AAHomecare council meetings; a conference kick-off luncheon with speaker; issue briefings; the annual membership meeting; and an evening reception with exhibitors, and a PAC reception. May 8 will begin with a Capitol Hill send-off, and then Capitol Hill meetings start at 9:30 a.m. and run through 4:30 p.m., ending with a late afternoon Capitol Hill reception