Headline News
AAHomecare: Moment for Action Is Upon Us
ARLINGTON, Va.--In a special update sent to members on Friday, American Association for Homecare Chairman Alan Landauer and President Tyler Wilson explained provisions of H.R. 6252, legislation introduced last week to delay competitive bidding--and the industry's work in bringing it about.
According to the message:
The legislation has been under development for some time. However, AAHomecare only received the final details of the proposal late in the day on June 11. The leadership of the Committee on Ways and Means, who were instrumental in putting the legislation together, wanted AAHomecare’s reaction to the proposed bill in less than 24 hours.
Over a month ago, anticipating that the final legislative proposal would come together quickly, AAHomecare’s executive committee began conferring with several other key industry stakeholders. These other groups included The MED Group and VGM. This task force has focused on the end-game strategy for successfully delaying competitive bidding. While the industry’s government relations and grassroots campaign to beat back the implementation of bidding has been underway for several years, many critical issues have crystallized in just the past 30 days after the high-profile hearing before the Ways and Means Committee on May 6.
With the pace of events in the House and Senate moving very fast, the opportunity for this industry to have the competitive bidding program examined and addressed by Congress before July 1 has been quickly drawing to a close. At the same time, the membership of AAHomecare has consistently been very clear that it wanted competitive bidding delayed, the implementation problems examined, and the entire program reassessed.
It is under the foregoing circumstances that the AAHomecare executive committee and other participants in the task force reviewed the final Ways and Means proposal on June 11. After careful consideration, AAHomecare announced its support of the impending legislation. In announcing our support, we made it conditional upon no other cuts being leveled on the industry this year.
