Cara Bachenheimer, JD, laughed when I kidded the experienced lobbyist about how confusing lawmakers must find differentiating between associations with names as similar as the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) and the American Home Care Association (AHCA). Bachenheimer is no stranger to helping befuddled lawmakers sort out acronym jumbles and figure out who they have met with. “You would be surprised how often it happens,” she said.

Although lawmakers may appreciate the consolidation of organizations that occurred last month, there were some skeptics among witnesses to last month’s marriage of the AAHomecare and AHCA. Was the timing right? Would the concerns of the AHCA members, primarily home health agency companies, be outweighed by the concerns of the primarily HME company AAHomecare membership?

But in the end, the many financial and lobbying advantages of joining carried the day. “We have gotten assurances of support from all the folks who voted no,” said John Beard, CEO of Alacare Home Health and Hospice of Birmingham, Ala, and outgoing AHCA president. “I think they simply felt that, as an organization, the American Home Care Association should take some more time to continue to operate independently and look forward to having more of a 6-month honeymoon period, if you will, in 2002.…Those who had worked closely with [the AAHomecare staff] felt we had had enough of a honeymoon period over the past year, and we felt we were ready to go forward and start living in the same house.”

Beard is right about home health agencies and HME providers growing together. The prospective payment system (PPS) bundling of nursing services, supplies, and HME into one episode of care payment forced many nursing providers and equipment dealers to work closer together. Now market forces, such as telemedicine, may continue to erode the wall between home health agencies and HME providers. When physicians can make referrals based on the availability of telemedicine services, the home health agency without strong equipment support and the HME without strong nursing support could be left out of the picture.

To get inside the decision-making process of AAHomecare, we went to the source for this issue’s guest editorial. (See “Building Community” on page 10.) The appearance of David Savitsky, AAHomecare’s chairman of the board, is a first; we have never had a home health agency representative grace our cover before.

Read his comments and those of our “Federal Outlook” panel of experts starting on page 22. Then let me know what you think. In this issue, we premier a “Question of the Month” on page 14 to better gauge our readers’ attitudes toward various topics. Responding is as easy as visiting our Web site at www.hhcdealer.com and clicking a button or dropping a postcard in the mail.

Now if only I could find the proper Martha Stewart etiquette guide for association marriages by February 20 when the AAHomecare Leadership Conference in Tuscon, Ariz, kicks off. I know they’ve registered for an elimination of the 15% cut to home health benefits and a Consumer Price Index (CPI) update to include oxygen, but I was hoping for something more personal.

Does anyone know if they need a blender?

Lena Lindahl
llindahl@medpubs.com