WASHINGTON--According to Sharon Hildebrandt, executive director of the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology, there was some positive response from the organization's Washington call-in last week.

"I think it went quite well," Hildebrandt said of Tuesday's event. Members of NCART and the National Registry of Rehabilitation Technology Suppliers placed phone calls to federal legislators, customers and clinicians to drum up support for H.R. 2231, the Medicare Access to Complex Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Act.

The bill would exempt complex rehab from Medicare's competitive bidding program.

"From our initial reports, it sounds like our members made many calls. For example, Permobil had 35 staff members who put in about 100 calls. United Seating and Mobility organized clinicians and consumers to call as well," Hildebrandt said.

Hildebrandt estimates that "several hundred" calls were made to ask representatives for their support. As a result, Florida Republican Bill Young decided to sign on to the bill, Hildebrandt said, bringing the total number of co-sponsors for H.R. 2231 to 26.

But Hildebrandt said little headway is being made in the Senate, where a companion bill has not been filed.

As to the future for the complex rehab carve-out, Hildebrandt said, "We'll just have to wait and see ... We're working with House Democrats to try to convince them to include the rehab exemption, and we're working with Senate Democrats, too. We just have to continue with the lobbying."