State Associations Seek a Say at Health Care Summits

ATLANTA — The home health sector got a chance to make its
voice heard last week when President Barack Obama’s administration
held its first regional health care summit in Detroit in an effort
to fast-track health care reform.

The Michigan Home
Health Association was among 400 groups and individuals invited
to attend the summit — billed as a “national conversation on
health care” — on Thursday. The summit was the first of five
to be held around the country; others are scheduled in Vermont
(March 17), Iowa (March 23), North Carolina (March 31) and
California (April 6).

Called for by Obama, who held his own White House summit on
health March 5, the state meetings are the administration’s means
of getting public input on health care concerns as the president
presses Congress for a health care reform bill this year.

Hosted by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Wisconsin Gov. Jim
Doyle and Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic
Policy Council, the Michigan summit was in question-and-answer
format, said Harvey Zuckerberg, MHHA’s executive director.

“They took turns fielding questions from the audience,”
Zuckerberg said, referring to the trio of moderators. “A number of
those who spoke were pre-selected. My assumption is that those who
were pre-selected could be counted on to cover major issues they
wanted to cover in the discussion. And if you weren’t pre-selected,
then you had to be chosen from a sea of hands in the air.”

While MHHA did not get picked to ask a question, Zuckerberg was
prepared. “We didn’t know what the format would be,” he said. “We
didn’t know whether we had the opportunity to present formal
testimony.”

So, Zuckerberg wrote a position paper just in case. “We made
sure we had a formal statement in hand and that it would be
registered and accepted on behalf of our home care industry. And it
was, so we are at least on record,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of all lines of home health care, including
home medical equipment, Zuckerberg’s statement noted that home care
“is a principal stakeholder to bringing down health care costs and
to providing health care for all Americans.

“We believe strongly that this cannot be accomplished
effectively without capturing the savings that would be achieved by
addressing the care needs of the chronically ill,” he wrote. “Some
12 percent of all Americans account for 70 percent of yearly health
care costs because they suffer from compound medical problems and
can’t leave home without assistance … The goal, in our view,
should be to keep people out of hospitals, and a home care-based,
physician-overseen form of chronic disease management can help
accomplish this objective.”

MHHA is not the only state association to be invited to the
summits. The New
England Medical Equipment Dealers Association won an invitation
to the Burlington, Vt., event. The California Association
of Medical Products Suppliers, the North Carolina Association for Medical Equipment
Services and the Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services
have all actively sought invitations.

Karyn Estrella, executive director of NEMED, said two other
representatives from her state association will also attend
tomorrow’s Vermont summit. Gary Sheehan of Cape Medical
Supplies in Sandwich, Mass., who was instrumental in garnering
the invitation, and Bob Simmons from Boston Home
Infusion in Dedham, Mass., will represent the association, she
said.

“We’re pretty excited about it. We don’t know what to expect,”
she said. Estrella has already submitted a question through the
administration’s health care forum Web site, she said. The
question: “Is home care being given serious consideration in health
care reform and if it is, what role do you see home care
playing?”

The goal in going, Estrella noted, was to let the voice of the
industry be heard. Congress and the Obama administration need to
know, she said, “that they really have the solutions to their
problems right in this industry.

“If there is a way to have our voice heard, we will make it
happen on Tuesday,” she promised. “We believe in this industry and
we believe in our mission … If enough of us can get our
voices heard, from the tiniest piece of the pie of home care, then
hopefully, it can be a more productive discussion down the
road.”

Rose Schafhauser, executive director of MAMES, agreed the
industry’s voice needs to be heard in the health care reform
conversations. MAMES has applied to be a part of the March 23
summit in Des Moines, Iowa.

“Hopefully, we will have a seat at the table and provide some
input. Statistics show that we have to be an important part of
health care reform. We need to get [the administration and
Congress] to understand what it means to service beneficiaries in
their homes. HME companies can be a part of that. There are a lot
of people who want to be part of the solution.”

Bob Achermann, executive director of CAMPS, said his
organization is “giving it the old college try” to secure an
invitation to the California summit April 6. “We need to get a
statement for the record submitted or try to get someone in the
audience to ask a question, to seize the opportunity,” he said.

The Michigan summit was only one of numerous activities last
week aimed at advancing health care reform.

• On Wednesday, Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman and George Miller of
  California and Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York vowed in
  a letter to the president to bring health care reform legislation
  to the House floor before the August recess. Waxman is chair of the
  Energy and Commerce Committee, Miller heads the Education and Labor
  Committee and Rangel chairs the Ways and Means Committee.

  “As chairs of these committees and veterans of past health
  reform debates, we have agreed to coordinate our efforts,” the
  letter reads. “Our intention is to bring similar legislation before
  our committees and to work from a harmonized approach to ensure
  success.”

• On Thursday, Democratic aides to the Senate Health, Education,
  Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee said a health care reform bill
  is being drafted and, like the House legislation, would be passed
  by the Senate before recessing in August.

• Meanwhile, The Hill reported that the Blue Dog
  Coalition, a group of 51 fiscally conservative House Democrats, is
  composing a letter to the president that will suggest a
  revenue-neutral health care reform plan. Obama has proposed a $634
  billion reserve fund that would allow health coverage for all U.S.
  residents; the coalition believes that is much too great a
  cost.

  Former HME owner Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., will head a new Blue
  Dog Health Care Task Force to work toward health care reform
  legislation “that not only addresses the millions of Americans
  lacking access and affordability of coverage, but also puts the
  country back on a fiscally sustainable path,” according to a
  statement from the group.

  Other members of the task force include Reps. Marion Berry
  (Ark.), Parker Griffith (Ala.), Zack Space (Ohio), John Barrow
  (Ga.), Travis Childers (Miss.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), Mike Michaud
  (Maine), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Earl Pomeroy (N.D.), John Tanner
  (Tenn.), Mike Thompson (Calif.) and Charlie Wilson (Ohio).

• In addition, according to Time magazine, a bipartisan
  group of nine senators, including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chair
  of the Senate Finance Committee, are close to consensus on a health
  reform bill.

  Calling themselves the “Gang of Nine,” the group includes Chuck
  Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Finance Committee; Jay
  Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chair of the Senate Finance Health
  Subcommittee; ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Sen. Edward
  Kennedy, D-Mass., chair of the HELP Committee; ranking member Mike
  Enzi, R-Wyo.; Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chair of the Senate Budget
  Committee; ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; and Chris Dodd,
  D-Conn., chair of the Senate Banking Committee.