Strong Grassroots Effort Needed to Ask House Members to Join  Letter

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) has released a Congressional sign-on letter to leadership at CMS, HHS, and OMB asking for additional relief for the HME community in the proposed ESRD/DMEPOS Rule currently under consideration.  We are asking HME providers and other stakeholders to ask their Representatives in the House to join the letter as soon as possible.

The letter, which can be seen here, expresses support for several policies currently contained in the Proposed Rule, and also advocates for these additional improvements:

• Increasing Reimbursement Rates in CBAs During Gap Period
• Extending Relief to all Non-Competitive Bidding Areas
• Improving Access to Liquid Oxygen

Other original signers on the letter include Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-K.Y.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), and Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa).

Please contact your Representatives in the House and ask that they sign onto the letter by Sept. 28.  You can find contact information for your Representative’s office here.  Calling your legislator’s office makes the strongest impact.  Please ask for the individual who handles healthcare issues and make these points:

• Reps. McMorris Rodgers, DeGette, Guthrie and Loebsack are circulating a Congressional sign-on letter that went out on Sept. 20 that asks for additional improvements to the ESRD/DMEPOS Proposed Rule currently under consideration at CMS.
• The letter asks CMS to consider additional reforms to provide a sustainable reimbursement rate for home medical equipment suppliers and maintain patient access to these products and services.
• Make a quick point about how deep cuts in Medicare reimbursement have affected your business and patients.
• Offer to send them a copy of the letter of the haven’t seen it – the letter can be found here.
• The deadline to sign on is Friday, Sept. 28
• Please note: this effort for the U.S. House of Representatives – there is no need to contact your Senators at this time.

You can also send a pre-written letter via our Action Center here.  Please share that link with your colleagues and co-workers.

The HME community’s grassroots efforts to raise Congressional interest and awareness on our issues has been the driving force behind securing the relief found in the recent HME-related IFR and in positive provisions currently found in the Proposed Rule.  Let’s build on this success by making one more very strong effort to get your legislators signed on to this letter!