AAHomecare Mounts Public Awareness Campaign

WASHINGTON–The American Association for Homecare said last week
that it plans to launch a “comprehensive public awareness campaign
to promote the mission of the home care industry.”

To raise funds for the campaign, the association will hold a
“Stand Up for Home Care” reception at Medtrade on Oct. 2 from 5:30
to 7:30 p.m. in the Orlando Peabody Hotel.

According to Mike Reinemer, vice president, communications and
policy, AAHomecare has been working in some states to make local
consumer press aware of the industry’s circumstances. Members have
also intensified efforts in educating federal legislators about the
impact of competitive bidding and reimbursement cuts on HME.

While those efforts are ongoing, Reinemer said, “we are looking
for additional resources to ratchet it up a couple of notches to
see how we might be able to break through the clutter in the
media.” With all of the issues in today’s news–the war in Iraq and
children’s health among them–Reinemer said it’s hard for home care
issues to attract the attention of the press, consumers or those in
Congress.

“These are complicated issues,” Reinemer said, “and the reality
is you have to boil them down to something that is easy to
understand. You can’t do justice to them in a couple of sound
bites.”

As a result, he said, the association has begun a series of
targeted press conferences in states whose congressional members
may play key roles in decisions affecting Medicare. Last week,
AAHomecare and the Council for Quality Respiratory Care teamed up
to hold teleconferences with consumer press in Florida and
Kentucky. With the help of the Big Sky Association for Medical
Equipment Services, another is being planned in Montana, the home
state of Sen. Max Baucus.

Baucus chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which is
now in conference with members of the House to reconcile
differences over funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance
Program. The House version of the measure includes provisions that
would cut Medicare’s home oxygen rental cap from 36 to 18 months
and eliminate the first-month purchase option for power
wheelchairs. The Senate version includes no Medicare cuts.

Reinemer said the current press conferences are focused on how
beneficiaries would be affected by the oxygen cuts. In Florida, for
example, the associations told the press that an estimated 125,000
seniors are using the home oxygen benefit and that 41,000
Floridians would be directly impacted by the 18-month cap. In
Kentucky, 34,800 beneficiaries currently use the home oxygen
benefit and 11,400 would be affected by the proposed cap.

Nationwide, the associations estimate that nearly half of the
more than 1 million seniors who rely on the benefit would be
affected by the oxygen cuts, which amount to nearly $2 billion over
five years.

“The House has had their say, and now the actions of the Senate
Finance Committee will be critical over the next weeks and months,”
Reinemer said. “We need to get the word out about the threat to
oxygen and to power wheelchair policy.”

Specific elements of the public awareness campaign won’t be
decided until the association knows how much money it will have to
work with, Reinemer said. “In all likelihood, it will probably be a
fairly targeted effort because in the media world [millions] don’t
go very far–and we won’t have millions,” he said, adding that the
association hopes to develop tools for providers so they can help
in raising consumer awareness about home care in their local
areas.

For information about the Stand Up for Home Care fundraiser,
e-mail Kim Kianka at [email protected] or visit the
Calendar of Events section at
www.aahomecare.org to download an event form.