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Well first of all we at the
NMSRC would like to thank all of you who participated with our PACT letter
writing campaign to our legislators at our annual summer conference held at
the Pyramid this year in Second of all we need to be persistent about keeping our issues in front of our legislators and on their political radar. So with that said, please log on to the NMSRC Home Web Page and click on the AARC Capitol Connection link and you will be taken to the AARC Advocacy Page. Once there you will be presented with four tabs Home, Elected Officials, Issues & Legislation, and Elections & Candidates. The two most important tabs are the Elected Officials and Issues & Legislation. First of all you need to know who your elected official are in your district, to find out just type in your zip code in the provided zip code box and press go and it will bring up your congressman and representatives in your district. Second you need to know what the issues are. By the way can you name at least 2 issues? If you can that’s great, if you can’t well…. that is a good reason to become familiar with the AARC’s Advocacy’s Web Page. When you identify your legislator then you can individually write your legislator or you can chose to write all of them with one click. The choice is yours. You can choose who gets the letter or message you compose. If you already have a letter please remember to save it as text first. This will allow you to cut and paste into the provided message / letter box. Finally once you are through you can either e-mail or choose the print and mail option. That’s it!! Now on to what is on our radar and action that needs to be taken. PACT
“Radar” As you know we have been meeting with congressional members and representatives on the following issues and still need your support regarding these legislative bills. · Patients Need Access to Respiratory Therapists in the Home: Support HR 964. The basic principle here is that we (RTs) need to be recognized by Medicare (now CMS) to perform and get reimbursed for services in the home care setting that we already get reimbursed for in the hospital setting. In order for that to occur we need to amend the medicare act and include this language change. 'To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to recognize the services of respiratory therapists under the plan of care for home health services.'
· S.1440 'A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide coverage for cardiac rehabilitation and pulmonary rehabilitation services. This bill also amends title XVIII of the Social Security Act. The new language will allow reimbursement for these services. The language introduced will be consistent and will clearly define who, what, and how long this type of therapy will be covered. There were regional differences and different interpretations of LMRPs thus the lack inconsistency of reimbursement for covered services. This bill may be referred as the Pulmonary and Cardiac Rehabilitation Act of 2005 (Introduced in Senate). · H.R.5513 'To amend part B of title XVIII of the Social Security Act To restore the Medicare treatment of ownership of oxygen equipment to that in effect before enactment of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.' This bill may be referred as the “Home Oxygen Patient Protection Act of 2006”. If passed, HR 5513 will restore the previous payment method for home oxygen equipment and relieve the Medicare beneficiary from having to assume responsibility for determining if their equipment is functioning properly, is in full working order, or is in need of servicing.
On the AARC Advocacy page we have a section called Current Action Alerts- That means we need everybody to call, write, fax, e-mail or provide some type of communication to their congressman or representative ASAP. These are some of the Current Action Alerts we need action on right now. Please do your part, remember there is strength in numbers. Ø Legislation in Congress (HR 5513 and S 3814) to Repeal Medicare 36-month Rent-to-Own Oxygen Equipment Provision (Please see AARC web site for complete details) Congress wants to cap payment to HMEs at 36 Months. There is also activity to actually reduce this number further down to13 months. This is really bad legislation for our oxygen dependent patients. Ø Medicare to Cover Outpatient Pulmonary Rehabilitation S1440 and HR4824 (this is house version of S1440) Your support is needed!
Ø Patients Need Access to Respiratory Therapists in the Home: Support HR 964 (this is patient access to care bill we discussed above
Larry and I apologize for making this a little long but NMSRC wants to make sure you know how to make your position known and your voice heard. If you have any questions or want to know how you can help please contact us. You will be able to sign up for PACT on the NMSRC web site sometime in November, but until then you may e-mail us at the following web address and phone numbers below: |
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PACT Chair e-mail: lgarland@phs.org Phone: (505)-891-4689 |
Robert Quintela PACT Co-Chair e-mail: rquintela@comcast.net Phone: (505)-899-7630 |
Gina Buldra NMSRC President e-mail
:BULDRAG@roswell.enmu.edu Phone (505)-624-7217 |
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Thank you, PACT Chair |
Robert Quintela PACT Co-Chair |
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