November, 11, 2015, Washington, D.C.—Good
morning, ProviderNation. It’s Veterans’ Day. You can be stoic
about it, if you like, or even mournfully hostile
to the day’s enterprise, but let us agree that the
duty laid upon us by the mighty and humane 16th president—“to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for
him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan”—is one
(subject to the occasional, and ambivalent, toggling between masculine and
feminine pronouns) that each generation knows it can neither shirk nor
ever discharge fully.
With that in mind, provider advocates can take
some cheer in the fact that legislation that would make it easier for them to
offer top-quality care to the nation’s vets is slowly working its way to
becoming law. Senate bill 2000, the Veterans Access to Long Term Care and Health Services Act,
has already had two readings and is now in the Committee on Veterans Affairs.
The bill would make it easier for the
Department of Veterans Affairs to sign provider agreements with long term and
post-acute care centers without all the baggage of making the care centers
full-on government contractors.
To read the full blog posting by Provider’s senior editor, Bill Myers,
please click here.
On October
7, 2015, the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted
Living (AHCA/NCAL) elected AHCA’s Board of Governors and NCAL’s Board of
Directors for the 2015-2016 term. Among the new officers, both boards selected
new chairs for the coming year: Tom Coble of Oklahoma for the AHCA Board, and
Christian (Chris) Mason of Oregon for the NCAL Board.
“We are
proud to welcome this distinguished group of leaders to our respective Boards,”
said AHCA/NCAL President and CEO Mark Parkinson. “With Tom and Chris at the
helm, we are excited about the future and will continue to improve lives by
providing solutions for quality care.”
You can click here to read the full news release from AHCA/NCAL.
AHCA recently applauded the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for
finalizing the rule “Medicaid Program; Methods for Assuring Access to Covered
Medicaid Services.” The rule puts
additional structures in place that are intended to make Medicaid fee-for-service
payment rate development more data-driven and transparent to beneficiaries and
providers.
“We applaud CMS for taking action on this
long-awaited rule,” said Mark Parkinson, President and CEO of AHCA. “AHCA provided input, and we are pleased
to see that CMS had like-minded ideas. This is a framework for more
transparency and accountability in the state plan amendment process for both
beneficiaries and providers.”
You can click here to read the full news release from AHCA.
AHCA’s Intellectual and Developmental
Disabilities (ID/DD) Residential Services Providers annual Hill Fly-In event
will occur on Tuesday, March 1, 2016, at the AHCA offices in DC. This important
event is free to attend. Breakfast and a boxed lunch will be provided to
registrants. Congressional speakers are being invited, a legislative update
will be provided, and Hill visits will follow in the afternoon. AHCA will
provide one-pagers and talking points for registrants to take to the Hill.
If you would like to attend, please
contact AHCA’s Senior Director of Not for Profit & Constituent Services, Dana Halvorson. If you have any
questions whatsoever, please don’t hesitate to let Dana know. AHCA
hopes to see you at this important event!
Steven Chies, AHCA’s NFP Council Chair,
encourages AHCA’s NFP providers to participate in our grassroots advocacy
efforts in 2015. AHCA would like to help you get facility tours and
in-district meetings set up over future recess days. Please provide your
name, facility address, and email address and we will craft the invite and send
it to you to send to the Congressional office. The four brief steps for a
successful facility tour visit can be found here. Please
feel free to contact Matthew Smyth and Dana Halvorson who can help you with all of the
logistics.
AHCA’s NFP Council
member, Van Moore (pictured to the right), meets with Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR-2,
pictured on the left) at the Oregon Veterans’
Home in The Dalles. Van
discussed with the Congressman issues impacting AHCA/NCAL members, including
the observation
stays issue.
For more
information on how NFPs can engage in the political process, please review this
webinar and handout from Wiley Rein, LLP. Both documents will give members of 501(c) 3
tax exempt organizations an overview of what they can and cannot do in regards
to lobbying and political activity. For
issue briefs, talking points and more, visit AHCA’s advocacy page.
As
you are planning your visits with members of Congress and their staff in
Washington, D.C., or in your district, the Congressional calendars will be of
assistance to you. The U.S. House of
Representatives calendar for the 114th Congress, first session, can
be found here. The U.S. Senate schedule for 2015 can be
found here. The
dates in black reference the times the U.S. Senate is in session. The red
dates represent when the U.S. Senate is in recess.
