Lena Lindahl, llindahl@medpubs.com

Okay, it was not quite Jimmy Carter and Fidel Castro, but from where I sit it was still pretty amazing. Last month Judy Berek, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) Northeast Consortium took two CMS staffers with her and spent 3 hours visiting Homecare Concepts Inc, an HME and respiratory company in Farmingdale, NY. The visit came about when Thomas Ryan, Homecare Concepts’ gentle but very persuasive president and CEO, used the occasion of a Region A council meeting to invite her over.

Every time I have met Tom, he has impressed me as a cool and collected person under nearly any circumstance. I once saw him speak to nearly 200 colleagues and friendly competitors at a MED Group meeting wearing a waiter’s tuxedo because the airline had lost his luggage. But I don’t imagine it was easy being the one to issue the invitation. After all, for most home health care providers, having CMS representatives show up to inspect their companies’ operations usually means they need to call a lawyer. (See our “Legal Counsel” column on page 36.)

Fortunately, Berek and Ryan both had the strength and confidence to put their differences aside and work for the common good. Their story continues on page 12 of “Industry News.”

Getting together with our friends and our adversaries is key to resolving the problems that plague the home health care industry. As Paul M. Bergantino, president of ATG-New England and this month’s guest editor, warns, “We are at a critical juncture. If we do not unify and contribute on some level, we will cease to exist.”

Legislators and government administrators are not out to destroy home health care, but even good people can make bad decisions when they are poorly informed about what they are deciding. It is up to us and to the people we serve to demonstrate the value of home health care.

When legislators get to know us, amazing things can happen. Take, for example, what occurred in Ohio with sales tax. For years HME providers in the state had lived with a tax code so vague on which HME was taxed that even tax board employees seemed confused. However, no bill to solve the problem was introduced until Rep Geoffrey Smith (R-Columbus) saw the state tax board put his next door neighbor, who owned an HME business, through the wringer for misunderstanding the tax code. (See “Taking on the Tax Man” on page 20.)

This month, those of us who will attend the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) Washington, DC, conference on June 5-7 will have the opportunity to enlighten a few more legislators when we meet with our representatives and senators. And if we can’t change legislators’ minds, home health care consumers might, says AAHomecare. It has strongly encouraged its members to bring these consumers with them, even setting up a program where these guests could obtain grants to cover the cost of their travel.

The conference comes at a particularly critical time as Congress plans to introduce the Medicare reform bill in June, says Thomas A. Connaughton, president and CEO of AAHomecare. “Anyone who wants to make a difference in the home health industry should be at this conference,” he says.

For those of you attending, I will see you in Washington. And for those staying home, keep reading. Our next issue will have all of the latest developments.