As the summer congressional recess winds to a close and lawmakers prepare to return to Capitol Hill in early September, the American Association is calling on lawmakers to support the industry’s legislative efforts by securing their Representatives’ and Senators’ support for rural bid relief.
As providers might recall, earlier efforts to delay the implementation of the full bidding expansion cuts in rural and non-bid areas prior the summer recess failed. During the summer, AAHomecare’s legislative staff and other HME stakeholders have been working with lawmakers to put together legislation that could be introduced into the House and Senate during the September session.
(Those efforts had good support early on, with the industry’s champions in the Senate affirming that they would help the industry advance a reform or retroactive delay when Congress returns to Capitol Hill in September.)
However, the window of opportunity is small. The industry will have only 19 days when Congress will be back in session before lawmakers will recess again to concentrate on campaign season, according to AAHomecare. Morevoer, the association notes that according to House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) calendar, Mondays and Fridays will often be shortened workdays.
“While have reported encouraging feedback from multiple meetings with staffers and members of Congress during August, we expect there will still be significant challenges in developing and moving legislation to roll back cuts for rural and non-bid area providers that can pass both the House and Senate by Sept. 30,” a statement from the association read.
Hence, AAHomecare is calling on providers to convey two key message points:
- Legislators should help bring the House and Senate to an agreement during the September session on legislation to roll back the latest round of cuts for HME patients and suppliers in rural and non-bid areas to give policymakers enough time to assess the impact of the first round of cuts that took place earlier this year.
- Ensure their House and Senate offices are aware that more action is needed. There is a concern that since each body did pass earlier legislation to roll back the cuts to varying degrees in their own chambers, they might not be aware that the legislation failed. (Read more about that in “The Rural Relief Rethink”). So, even if a provider’s legislators were co-sponsors or supporters of S. 2736 or H.R. 5210, providers should make sure those bills did not success, and that they should contact their party leadership to make this a priority in September.
Lastly, even if a provider is already located in a bidding area, AAHomecare is asking them to help support the effort.
hope you’ll ask your legislators to support relief for rural and non-bid areas.
“Please be assured that AAHomecare’s recent focus on rural/non-bid area relief does not signal that the Association is through with efforts to reform and improve the current version of the bidding program,” the association’s statement noted. “Passing this legislation does help reinforce the argument that competitive bidding rates are unsustainable for the HME community in the long run.”