Monday, March 16, 2009

ATLANTA — The home health sector got a chance to make its voice heard last week when President Barack Obama's administration held its first regional health care summit in Detroit in an effort to fast-track health care reform.

The Michigan Home Health Association was among 400 groups and individuals invited to attend the summit — billed as a "national conversation on health care" — on Thursday. The summit was the first of five to be held around the country; others are scheduled in Vermont (March 17), Iowa (March 23), North Carolina (March 31) and California (April 6).

Called for by Obama, who held his own White House summit on health March 5, the state meetings are the administration's means of getting public input on health care concerns as the president presses Congress for a health care reform bill this year.

Hosted by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, the Michigan summit was in question-and-answer format, said Harvey Zuckerberg, MHHA's executive director.

"They took turns fielding questions from the audience," Zuckerberg said, referring to the trio of moderators. "A number of those who spoke were pre-selected. My assumption is that those who were pre-selected could be counted on to cover major issues they wanted to cover in the discussion. And if you weren't pre-selected, then you had to be chosen from a sea of hands in the air."


While MHHA did not get picked to ask a question, Zuckerberg was prepared. "We didn't know what the format would be," he said. "We didn't know whether we had the opportunity to present formal testimony."

So, Zuckerberg wrote a position paper just in case. "We made sure we had a formal statement in hand and that it would be registered and accepted on behalf of our home care industry. And it was, so we are at least on record," he said.

Speaking on behalf of all lines of home health care, including home medical equipment, Zuckerberg's statement noted that home care "is a principal stakeholder to bringing down health care costs and to providing health care for all Americans.

"We believe strongly that this cannot be accomplished effectively without capturing the savings that would be achieved by addressing the care needs of the chronically ill," he wrote. "Some 12 percent of all Americans account for 70 percent of yearly health care costs because they suffer from compound medical problems and can't leave home without assistance … The goal, in our view, should be to keep people out of hospitals, and a home care-based, physician-overseen form of chronic disease management can help accomplish this objective."

MHHA is not the only state association to be invited to the summits. The New England Medical Equipment Dealers Association won an invitation to the Burlington, Vt., event. The California Association of Medical Products Suppliers, the North Carolina Association for Medical Equipment Services and the Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services have all actively sought invitations.


Karyn Estrella, executive director of NEMED, said two other representatives from her state association will also attend tomorrow's Vermont summit. Gary Sheehan of Cape Medical Supplies in Sandwich, Mass., who was instrumental in garnering the invitation, and Bob Simmons from Boston Home Infusion in Dedham, Mass., will represent the association, she said.

"We're pretty excited about it. We don't know what to expect," she said. Estrella has already submitted a question through the administration's health care forum Web site, she said. The question: "Is home care being given serious consideration in health care reform and if it is, what role do you see home care playing?"

The goal in going, Estrella noted, was to let the voice of the industry be heard. Congress and the Obama administration need to know, she said, "that they really have the solutions to their problems right in this industry.

"If there is a way to have our voice heard, we will make it happen on Tuesday," she promised. "We believe in this industry and we believe in our mission … If enough of us can get our voices heard, from the tiniest piece of the pie of home care, then hopefully, it can be a more productive discussion down the road."

Rose Schafhauser, executive director of MAMES, agreed the industry's voice needs to be heard in the health care reform conversations. MAMES has applied to be a part of the March 23 summit in Des Moines, Iowa.


"Hopefully, we will have a seat at the table and provide some input. Statistics show that we have to be an important part of health care reform. We need to get [the administration and Congress] to understand what it means to service beneficiaries in their homes. HME companies can be a part of that. There are a lot of people who want to be part of the solution."

Bob Achermann, executive director of CAMPS, said his organization is "giving it the old college try" to secure an invitation to the California summit April 6. "We need to get a statement for the record submitted or try to get someone in the audience to ask a question, to seize the opportunity," he said.

The Michigan summit was only one of numerous activities last week aimed at advancing health care reform.

  • On Wednesday, Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman and George Miller of California and Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York vowed in a letter to the president to bring health care reform legislation to the House floor before the August recess. Waxman is chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Miller heads the Education and Labor Committee and Rangel chairs the Ways and Means Committee.

    "As chairs of these committees and veterans of past health reform debates, we have agreed to coordinate our efforts," the letter reads. "Our intention is to bring similar legislation before our committees and to work from a harmonized approach to ensure success."


  • On Thursday, Democratic aides to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee said a health care reform bill is being drafted and, like the House legislation, would be passed by the Senate before recessing in August.

  • Meanwhile, The Hill reported that the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 51 fiscally conservative House Democrats, is composing a letter to the president that will suggest a revenue-neutral health care reform plan. Obama has proposed a $634 billion reserve fund that would allow health coverage for all U.S. residents; the coalition believes that is much too great a cost.

    Former HME owner Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., will head a new Blue Dog Health Care Task Force to work toward health care reform legislation "that not only addresses the millions of Americans lacking access and affordability of coverage, but also puts the country back on a fiscally sustainable path," according to a statement from the group.

    Other members of the task force include Reps. Marion Berry (Ark.), Parker Griffith (Ala.), Zack Space (Ohio), John Barrow (Ga.), Travis Childers (Miss.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), Mike Michaud (Maine), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Earl Pomeroy (N.D.), John Tanner (Tenn.), Mike Thompson (Calif.) and Charlie Wilson (Ohio).

  • In addition, according to Time magazine, a bipartisan group of nine senators, including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chair of the Senate Finance Committee, are close to consensus on a health reform bill.

    Calling themselves the "Gang of Nine," the group includes Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Finance Committee; Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chair of the Senate Finance Health Subcommittee; ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chair of the HELP Committee; ranking member Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.; Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chair of the Senate Budget Committee; ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chair of the Senate Banking Committee.