So do you have a problem with medicaid saving $9 billion over the next 10 years” was not the greeting Jill Spellman, RRT, was expecting when she sat down with her Congressional representative, Gerry Kleczka (D-Wis), on September 18, as part of the American Association for Homecare’s 1-day lobbying event.

Her morning meeting with Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wis) had been cordial, so Kleczka’s argumentative approach took Spellman aback.

She started to counter his argument with her own statistics, but then remembered the instructions she and the other 259 attendees at the AAHomecare Fly-In had received that morning: Don’t get into numbers, tell your story.

“I’m glad that rang in my mind, because as a business owner, the first thing I wanted to come back with was statistics, but then I thought, I’m not going to win this battle,” she said.

Instead, Spellman, president of Oxygen One Inc of Waukesha, Wis, explained how she and her husband, Jim, had started the company 2 years ago and how important it was for her to continue providing oxygen to people in Kleczka’s home district.

She showed Kleczka pictures of some of her oxygen patients downhill skiing and fishing and explained who they were, how she helped them, and how competitive bidding would actually take away her ability to compete in the oxygen market.

Kleczka, although still negative, seemed to warm slightly and started asking his senior legislative assistant, Maria Castillo, some questions about how competitive bidding would work.

Did Spellman change Kleczka’s mind? Probably not. “He said, ‘I think you are going to lose this one in the Senate.’ And he was very anxious to let us know that it was off his back,” Spellman says.

But even if she didn’t change his mind, she and the other providers who came to Capitol Hill that day tried.

“The industry came and spoke,” says Tom Connaughton, president and CEO of AAHomecare in our “Industry News” starting on page 16. “There is no excuse for anyone on Capitol Hill not to know that this is extremely controversial. They have been touched by an awful lot of people. That doesn’t necessarily mean we are going to win, but it improves our chances. If we don’t win, it will not be because they weren’t hearing from their constituents.”

As this issue went to press, competitive bidding looked like it would pass despite the objections of the HME industry. However, as one of the people on Capitol Hill on September 18, I can tell you that it was not because of a lack of effort. As I joined the would-be lobbyists for the planning breakfast and followed the New York delegation around the House and Senate, I couldn’t help feeling that win or lose, getting this many people in the industry together for a common goal was a defining moment for the industry and for its 2-year-old national association.

Starting on page 82 this issue, Wallace Weeks, founder of the Weeks Group, Melbourne, Fla, presents the first part of a two-part exclusive report on why competitive bidding and inherent reasonableness reimbursement reductions may be inevitable and what HME providers can do to survive in spite of them. I sincerely hope this industry will not need his advice. But if it does, it will not be because it didn’t make its voice heard.

Lena Lindahl
llindahl@medpubs.com