NCART Call-in Garners One More Co-Sponsor for H.R. 2231

WASHINGTON–According to Sharon Hildebrandt, executive director
of the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology, there
was some positive response from the organization’s Washington
call-in last week.

“I think it went quite well,” Hildebrandt said of Tuesday’s
event. Members of NCART and the National Registry of Rehabilitation
Technology Suppliers placed phone calls to federal legislators,
customers and clinicians to drum up support for H.R. 2231, the
Medicare Access to Complex Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology
Act.

The bill would exempt complex rehab from Medicare’s competitive
bidding program.

“From our initial reports, it sounds like our members made many
calls. For example, Permobil had 35 staff members who put in about
100 calls. United Seating and Mobility organized clinicians and
consumers to call as well,” Hildebrandt said.

Hildebrandt estimates that “several hundred” calls were made to
ask representatives for their support. As a result, Florida
Republican Bill Young decided to sign on to the bill, Hildebrandt
said, bringing the total number of co-sponsors for H.R. 2231 to
26.

But Hildebrandt said little headway is being made in the Senate,
where a companion bill has not been filed.

As to the future for the complex rehab carve-out, Hildebrandt
said, “We’ll just have to wait and see … We’re working with House
Democrats to try to convince them to include the rehab exemption,
and we’re working with Senate Democrats, too. We just have to
continue with the lobbying.”