Last week, I had the privilege of joining homecare and hospice representatives from all across the country in a “March on Washington” to meet with congressional leaders and discuss issues of healthcare policy reform and its effects on our industry.
Some of the things we lobbied for included fighting cuts to our Medicare budget and the initiation of Medicare co-payments, eliminating the newly required Face-to-Face Encounter rule for physicians, and allowing Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants to order and sign homecare orders.
I really appreciated the candid conversations many of the Congressional representatives afforded us. It really opened my eyes to the realization that homecare is lacking in and needs our voice to be better heard in our government policy-making decisions. <a href=”http://celtichealthcare.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/homecare-needs-a-voice/”>Read more on Celtic Healthcare’s Blog</a>.