American Association for Homecare has begun a push to get industry stakeholders to continue driving support for H.R. 2771, which would implement permanent rural and non-bid area relief and eliminate the oxygen budget neutrality offset.
As part of that strategy, the association is hoping to leverage past congressional support for H.R. 4229, which aimed to accomplish the same policy changes at H.R. 2771. That bill garnered more than 155 co-sponsors during the 115th Congress. Currently, H.R. 2771 has 37 co-sponsors in the 116th Congress.
“Over the next 10 days, we ask the HME community in these states to make contact with House members who co-sponsored H.R. 4229 in the last Congressional session and ask them to sign onto H.R. 2771,” a statement from AAHomecare read. “There are a total of 86 of these House members (26 Democrats, 60 Republicans) who should be open to signing on again — and now is the time to get them on board!”
The association posted a list of House lawmakers who co-sponsored H.R. 4229, but haven’t yet signed on to H.R. 2771. In particular, AAHomecare highlighted in its statement that the 13 members of the Ways & Means Committee and 11 members of the Energy & Commerce Committee who co-sponsored H.R. 4229 would be especially helpful to add to the H.R. 2771.
To help providers in their advocacy efforts, AAHomecare posted an H.R. 2771 issue brief, as well as maps showing CBA, rural and regional areas by state.