As the 109th Congress comes to an end and the industry heads toward a pivotal year, it’s time to make yourself known and lay the groundwork for the 110th Congress.

During the final weeks of the 109th Congress, it will be important to dust off your grassroots lobbying skills to push for the Hobson-Tanner bill (HR 3559), the Home Oxygen Patient Protection Act (HR 5513), and a full market-basket update for home health agencies.

But the reality is that any time is the right time to exercise your grassroots muscles.  If you are reading Dealer/Provider, you are probably already way ahead of the game and you are a great candidate to be a leader who will mobilize your local home care community—providers, manufacturer representatives, patients, and families.

Believe it or not, members of Congress want to hear from their constituents—that is, anyone who lives in the state (for Senators) or the specific Congressional District they are from (for House members). Links on the bottom of the American Association for Homecare Web site (www.aahomecare.org) allow you to punch in a zip code and receive a link to your corresponding senator or House member.

In any given year, only a small percentage of constituents contact their members of Congress. According to research cited by Michael Lord at Wake Forest University, fewer than 3% of constituents contact their member of Congress about legislative issues. Fewer than 2% of constituents are active in political campaigns. That means that, as a constituent, your calls, e-mails, and meetings make a big difference—especially if you underscore the role your organization plays in the community with your number of employees and the number of home care patients you represent.  

In some cases, a few calls from just one well-connected, politically active home care provider can produce huge results in getting a member to cosponsor or even introduce legislation. We have seen that happen several times this year already on the Home Oxygen Patient Protection Act. We encourage everyone to become that well-connected activist.  

But it is more likely that a much bigger re-sponse will be required to spur action. Michael Lord from Wake Forest ballparks that about 60 e-mails or 100 phone calls on average are required just to get an issue on the radar screen as a priority for a Congressional office.

Further, he estimates that a minimum of about 400 e-mails or letters and 500 phone calls are required to get a Congressional office to modify or reconsider its position on an issue. And in our industry, we sometimes have to fight against an established position that is not in our interest. If every home care provider in a given Congressional district contacts his member of Congress, it may not be enough to push our issues to the top of the heap. Knowing this makes it all the more essential to make sure that home care providers recognize their role as leaders who can bring more stakeholders into the picture. One of the stakeholder groups you can bring in is employees. The drivers, therapists, and others who work for your organization can champion home care issues if they are in the loop about them and are encouraged to contact Congress.  

Another group is patients and their families. Mobilizing patients to contact Congress can be an effective means of advocating for stronger home care policy in Washington. However, this must be done carefully to ensure that the issue is presented in a simple and factual manner.  

Ask the member of Congress to perform a specific action. For instance, to fix competitive bidding, we are asking members to sign on to the Hobson-Tanner bill—HR 3559 in the House. For the oxygen issue, we are asking that members of the House cosponsor the Home Oxygen Patient Protection Act (HR 5513). And we ask Senators to cosponsor S 3814, the Senate companion bill introduced last week by Senator Roberts (R-Kan).  

Of course, always be prepared, professional, polite, and patient. Time is tight.  Get to the point quickly, be brief, and summarize—always summarize.  Congressional staff members have more issues and details to cover than they can manage. Reinforce the issue as much as possible with one-page leave-behinds.  

Tell a story by putting a human face on the issue. Try to know the member’s position beforehand so you can be prepared. A face-to-face meeting with the member of Congress or staff is the most effective means of getting your point across. The meeting can take place in Washington in the member’s Capitol Hill office, in the district office back in the state, or during a visit to your site or facility.

E-mail is often the best way to contact Congress if you can’t meet in person. This is especially true if you have the e-mail address for the Senator or Congressman’s legislative assistant (LA) who covers health care issues. However, use e-mail judiciously and send only to individuals (such as LAs)—not as part of e-mail blasts or spam-style e-mails to many Congressional offices.

Traditional mail is slow. Also, because of the anthrax attack several years ago, snail mail from the US Postal Service goes through a harsh treatment process before it reaches Congress. So it may arrive several weeks late, and it often arrives brittle and smelly—making it unpleasant to handle. However, a personal, handwritten, or typed letter can still be effective. The key is to get as many of your staff, your patients, and their families to send the e-mails or letters.

Again, the e-mail should identify who you are, where you live, how the issue affects you, and what exactly you would like the member of Congress to do. Phone calls also count, especially when they are generated in large numbers. As with e-mail, identify who you are, where you live, how the issue affects you, and what exactly you would like the member of Congress to do. Site visits can also be an effective tool.

Quality can be just as important as quantity when it comes to grassroots lobbying and communications. If you think of grassroots and grasstops activism as a part of your job description, and essential to your organization’s survival, then we’ll all be stronger for it.

Ann Howard is director of federal policy for AAHomecare, Alexandria, Va. She can be reached via e-mail: ahoward@aahomecare.org.