No Question

Last year, I was attending a national meeting when, during a question and answer period, a gentleman from the audience asked, “If I pay my state association dues and I pay my national association dues, why do I have to write letters and make phone calls?”

At first, I was taken aback by what I thought was a question with such an obvious answer. After all, I had just completed two years as vice president of the Florida Association of Medical Equipment Services and was finishing up my first year as president. And here was this man asking, essentially, what have these associations done for me?

To me, the answer was clear. Associations offer support, advocacy, and in some cases, protection for their members. Such support and advocacy are even more important in heavily regulated industries such as ours.

As I thought about what I had just been asked, I realized that there were probably many people and companies out there who felt exactly the same way as the gentleman from the audience.

The strength of any association or organization is based on the number of members it has and the commitment of its membership. When the dues dollars are paid, the commitment from the member does not stop — in fact, it increases. By joining an association, a provider says, “I want your help, I want your information, I want your protection, and I am here to help you provide those services.” An association cannot function efficiently without the financial support of its members. Likewise, an association cannot function efficiently without the active involvement — or personal time investment — of its members.

Although I have worked in this industry for 16 years, it has been only within the past 10 years that I have really advocated lobbying and working together as an industry “team.” A decade ago, I began to realize how much the home medical equipment industry had lost simply because HME providers felt they could not make a difference in what happened in the industry.

Do you remember when our oxygen reimbursement was cut by 25 percent? Prior to that cut, rumors circulated that the reduction would be anywhere from 40 percent to 75 percent. When the final figure was announced, we were grateful that it was only 25 percent.