PAMS Turns Up the Heat with Radio Ads

HARRISBURG, Pa. — While the HME industry’s vigorous battle
against DMEPOS competitive
bidding has largely been an internal fight, the Pennsylvania
Association of Medical Services is aiming to change all that with a
radio advertising campaign.

PAMS is working on a radio spot targeting Medicare beneficiary
audiences and encouraging them to raise their voices to combat the
scheme, said John Shirvinsky, executive director of PAMS. The ads,
expected to be on the air by Labor Day, are the first in the
industry to take on a political issue.

“This is a new thing. We just had the Supreme Court decision
that removed the prohibition against corporate political
advertising,” said Shirvinsky. “So, we have an opportunity we
simply haven’t had before, and we have an issue that by any
analysis is going to forever change the face of the industry, if
not destroy it altogether. This is an issue where making a stand
makes a whole lot of sense.

“What also makes sense,” he continued, “is getting patients
involved, because at the end of the day, the people who are going
to be harmed the most are those who depend on home medical
equipment providers for their equipment and services.”

Shirvinsky said the radio spot, the brainchild of PAMS board
member Georgie Blackburn of Blackburn’s Pharmacy in Tarentum, Pa.,
is being crafted with the aid of the American Association for
Homecare’s Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm Rational
360.

The collaboration was a natural one, said Tilly Gambill,
manager, marketing and communications, for the association.

“AAHomecare has been pushing from all angles including
legislative, regulatory and in the media. Currently, the
association is gathering information on different types of media
campaigns to reach a large number of consumers and their families
in order to educate them on the competitive bidding program and
encourage them to call Congress,” she said. “We are hoping the
multiple calls will serve as the final push a congressman needs to
help get H.R. 3790 [to eliminate competitive bidding] up for a
vote.”

Shirvinsky said the ad will briefly explain competitive bidding
and encourage beneficiaries — twice — to call the U.S.
Capitol switchboard.

“We’re looking at a media buy in most of Pennsylvania,” said
Shirvinsky, noting that areas of his state are in both Rounds 1 and
2 of competitive bidding.

PAMS would also like to buy TV ads that would feature spots
created by the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness with the aid of
Waterloo, Iowa-based service organization, VGM Group. VGM has been
running videos featuring beneficiaries speaking to the competitive
bidding issue on social media like YouTube (see VGM
Videos Show Face of HME, Aug. 9).

Shirvinsky thinks the potential is great, especially if other
state associations take the ad and run with it.

“When you put it out like this, it not only attracts the
attention of the people who are on Medicare, it also attracts the
attention of their family members, their caregivers, their friends,
people who see how much somebody relies on the medical equipment
provider,” he said. The more people involved in the battle against
competitive bidding, the better, according to Shirvinsky.

“We have been playing nice-nice with Congress, and we have been
fighting the battle as an industry battle,” he said. “But it is
more than an industry battle. It’s a people battle. It’s a people
with pulmonary problems battle. It’s a hospital discharge planner
battle.

“This is a silly, silly program that will dismantle an industry
that enables people to be cared for in their homes.”

Shirvinsky said he likens the industry to a thermometer. “We
have been thermometers for far too long, taking the temperature of
Congress,” he said, “I want to be a thermostat. I want to turn up
the heat.

“Congress isn’t going to do something because we asked. They are
going to do something because we asked and because they are hearing
from their constituents,” he said. “It’s time for the patients to
get involved in this.”

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