Hello everyone, and welcome to our Monday Minute. Today I want to share with you some very critical information regarding advocacy with our lawmakers.
The National Association for Home Care & Hospice as well as your local State Home Care and Hospice associations fight diligently for you on a routine basis at the highest levels, whether it be at the State level with your state representatives and lawmakers or whether it be at the national level. The National Association for Home Care & Hospice has launched an advocacy (campaign) that we need your participation in. We, as a nation, need to put our foot down and share with them, Congress specifically, how impactful the decisions that they’re making are to us on the frontlines taking care of patients during this Public Health Emergency.
The specific situation with the advocacy, we are asking you to participate in right now, includes the sequestration deduction that I’m sure most of you know has been in place for years and was in place at a rate of 2% deducted from all of your payments, prior to the beginning of the Public Health Emergency. It was then put on hold and currently is still on hold but is set to be reinstated on April 1, 2022. From April 1 – June 30, it will be a reduction of 1% of your payments, and then it will go back to its original 2% effective July 1, 2022. This advocacy is specifically to tell Congress how this is going to be hurtful to agencies, how it will impact patient care, etc.
We all know that there is a staffing shortage in the healthcare industry and all of the things that go into that. We can’t take another hit and so we do ask that you take a minute to click on the link that we will provide in this Minute. That will take you to the advocacy where you just have to put in your name, phone number, email address, click the button and you will be sending the email to your congressman.
We are in need of your help, truthfully, to get the picture painted as clearly as we can and hope that you will take a minute to do that. I want to encourage you not only to participate in the advocacy today, but any advocacy that you are asked to participate in throughout the year, from again, both your State and National associations. I also beg you to be members of those associations on both a local State level as well as the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, as they are your biggest advocates. Everything that they do impacts all agencies, not just the ones that are technically members. We need your membership. We need your help. We need your support so that we can continue together to represent the industry as strongly as we possibly can.
I want to thank you all for continuing to be on the frontlines and caring for patients during this Public Health Emergency, encouraging you to help us help you in this advocacy with the National Association, and hope you have a fabulous week.