In some ways, a business is like a child. You nurture it, feed it, give and get advice, then slowly expand the boundaries. When threats emerge, protection is immediate and fierce.

For parents who take on the enormous responsibility of schooling their children at home, the threats come from many angles. Neighbors are baffled by the lack of conformity. Government-run schools are suspicious of uncredentialed parents who presume to know more than teachers.

Home schoolers live with these prejudices and are well attuned to legislative threats that may emerge. In fact, they have the uncanny ability to put aside their philosophical differences and positively stomp on threatening legislation—essentially killing it before it has a chance to breathe. “When information gets out about something that is happening in the home school community, everyone is ready to act and do what needs to be done,” says Tammy Takahashi, editor of California HomeSchooler Magazine, Burbank, Calif. “Even though home schooling is legal...there is still a lot of pressure and a lot of fear that one day it might not be—that one day home schooling might be made illegal or very difficult to do—or might be defined in a very small box.”

At the AAHomecare Legislative Fly-In last June, Tom Ryan cited the home school movement as an example of how overwhelming political action could be used to squash threatening legislation. Sen Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who appeared on the cover of Dealer/Provider 2 years ago and founded the Senate COPD caucus, also mentioned home schoolers at a recent fund-raiser attended by home care providers. Specifically, Crapo described an early 1994 amendment to a federal education bill that would have required certification of home school teachers. Within a week, the leader of the 37,000-member Home School Legal Defense Association went on two nationally syndicated radio talk shows and revved up the phone trees of his members. Approximately 800,000 phone calls later, only one member of Congress was willing to vote for the amendment.

A quick look at the National Home Education Network Web site at www.nhen.org shows a list of nine government initiatives in 2005. All bit the dust—and some did not even make it out of committee. When the California legislature wanted to make preschool mandatory for 4-year-old children this June, home schoolers banded with private school owners to ensure the bill landed dead on arrival.

Yes, a zealous group of parents is a force of nature that is hard to match. After all, HME providers have businesses to run, customers to serve, and families of their own to tend. However, the home school analogy fits to a point. Providers don’t want HME products and services defined in a “very small box.” Like parents who relish their freedom, providers want the freedom to compete for patients in a fair and open manner.

Ultimately, providers want the businesses they nurture and feed to have a fair chance to succeed and prosper. And when prosperity depends largely on money from government programs, legislators must be educated and convinced by powerful arguments, unbiased data, and sheer numbers. Home schoolers understand this, and so do HME providers such as Jay Broadbent (this month’s cover profile) along with many others. As the industry breathlessly awaits final (or perhaps interim) rules on competitive bidding and accreditation standards, the tactics of home schoolers would be wise to imitate.

This year's Grassroots Central at Medtrade Atlanta is proud to welcome Jabal Chase, Health Insurance Specialist for DME Policy at CMS. Chase will speak on the latest DMEPOS issues to come out of CMS and participate in a question and answer session. Things can change quickly so the agenda will match the issues as they stand on September 20. There are no CMS representatives scheduled for the regular Medtrade educational sessions, so this will be a rare opportunity to go face to face with a member of CMS. The probable time and place (subject to change) are September 20, from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM at the Grassroots Central location on the trade show floor.