Taking the Plunge

Imagine for a moment that you are in the Oregon Senate chamber, where a heated discussion is going on about the merits of cutting Medicaid reimbursement for home medical equipment. Some of your respected peers think this is a good idea. It saves money, they say. Others, equally respected, say it will hamper access and service. Who you gonna call to find out who's right?

If you're Oregon state Sen. Betsy Johnson, you'll call Norm Stutznegger or Bob McLellan of Pacific Coast Medical Supply.

“They are the go-to people on [HME issues] for me,” says Johnson, who, during a floor debate, has been known to make a beeline for the bank of telephone booths at the back of the chamber and call her dentist or another trusted source in her Rolodex for information. “I operate on the trust-but-verify theory. I now have go-to people on that issue. It makes all the difference in the world.

“The fact that Norm has been foresightful enough to put somebody on point to watch their backs is a big deal,” she adds.

Making the Difference

How did McLellan and Stutznegger get to be Johnson's “go-to” people on HME issues? By waking up to the fact that, though only small to medium in size, Pacific Coast Medical has a voice and it was time it was used.

“What I saw is that we were not doing enough … as a company to be an advocate for our patients,” says Stutznegger.

His full-line, Joint Commission-accredited HME company has three locations in two states: Astoria, Ore., and Longview and Vancouver, Wash. In the last several years, state HME issues have been cropping up more frequently, not to mention the morass of regulatory and legislative edicts flowing like lava out of Washington, D.C. Stutznegger had tried to deal with it himself, but it was tough to keep up and run the business at the same time. It was time, he decided, to dedicate one employee to working with legislators and educating them about HME.

In a bold move, he created the government relations position for McLellan, a retired helicopter mechanic for the U.S. Coast Guard, who started at the company in 2004 as a driver and then became operations manager.

“I charged him with making contact with every official at the state and federal levels twice a week,” Stutznegger says.

Since December, when he officially took on the job, McLellan has done that in both Oregon and Washington. He's on a first-name basis with virtually all the legislators in both states and many, if not all, of their aides.