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Events/Session
Descriptions
MARCH ON WASHINGTON,
May 13-15, 2009
We are committed to doing all that
we can to keep the proposed home health cuts at bay. NAHC
has scheduled a second March
on Washington on Wednesday, May 13 through Friday, May 15,
2009,
and we are working to make sure that we have at least one
home care nurse from every state as part of the lobbying
effort. There is no more respected group in the U.S.
than nurses. Nurses are also extremely politically
active. Congress is aware that one out of every 44
voters in the U.S. is a nurse.
On Thursday,
May 14, from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., these nurses will have
the opportunity to provide testimony before Congressmen Jim
McGovern and Walter Jones,
the Co-Chairs of the House Home Care Caucus. All members
of the House of Representatives will be invited to attend. We
have also asked Senators Bob Dole, Tom Daschle, John Breaux,
and Congressman Mel Levine to participate in these hearings. We
are asking nurses to follow the example of our board member
Greg Pang, who brought to the March on Washington with him
a picture of one of his clients and a letter authored by
this client, which he read in public to U.S. Senator Patty
Murray.
Here is a draft of what a typical
nurse’s statement might include. Although
their written statements for the record can be of any length, we are expecting
each nurse to have a one-minute opening statement and thereafter to respond to
questions from members of the panel. We plan to video tape this hearing and
make it available to newspapers and television stations. We are
encouraging nurses to come to town as early as possible on Wednesday the 13th and
to spend this time making visits to their Senators and Congressmen.
ETHICS AND COMPLIANCE
SUMMIT
Wednesday, May 13, 10 am to 3 pm.
While some of our attendees will
be making visits to Capitol Hill, others may wish to
attend The Ethics and Compliance Summit, which will
be held at NAHC’s Frederick Douglass Museum,
located at 320 A Street, NE, in Washington DC.
The home care community has a responsibility to do all that it can to achieve and
maintain the highest standards of ethics and compliance. NAHC is scheduling the
Summit to develop an Action Plan to secure that goal. The Summit will bring together
high level officials from government oversight and enforcement agencies such as
the OIG and CMS with leaders in home care to determine how both can address the
compliance issues and concerns present in today’s home care. The focus will
be on what new operational structures and federal rules are needed to combat fraud,
waste, and abuse, whether isolated or otherwise. Included in the Action Plan development
will be consideration of credentialing standards for owners and executives, a detailed
code of conduct, the uses of mandatory compliance plans, and the institution of
a moratorium on new Medicare home health agencies. The resulting Action Plan will
be disseminated to Congress, federal agencies, and the public.
CHRONIC CARE MANAGEMENT
CONGRESS
Friday, May
15, 10 am – 3 pm.
The future of health care requires the accelerated
development and implementation of a community-based
program for managing the growing number of chronically ill
individuals using preventive care and integrated services.
Home health agencies that offer experience and expertise
should be the foundation of such a program. NAHC invites
you to join in a national planning event, The Chronic Care
Management Congress, at which we will establish the guiding
principles and the architecture for a chronic care management
program (CCMP) operating through qualified home health agencies.
Innovative programs that combine an interdisciplinary team of health care professionals
with modern technology, a comprehensive set of community based services, and a
patient-centered approach have proven to improve patient outcomes, benefit their
quality of life, and significantly reduce health care expenditures through avoiding
hospitalizations, emergent care, and other costly health care services. The Chronic
Care Management Congress will devise the standards for the creation of an effective
CCMP model under Medicare and the criteria to evaluate any proposed program. Please
join us for this landmark event!
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