Calling All PrAACtical Advocates

US Colleagues: It’s not too late! We still need your help to tell Congress and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, to stop denying our most vulnerable disabled people their ability to communicate! The initial advocacy effort was effective in delaying the start date for implementation of the proposed changes but more needs to be done.  New to these issues? Check out the post by Bill Binko here.

Basically, Medicare has announced several changes to its speech generating device coverage policies that will be devastating to people with complex communication needs.  To protect our clients, we believe the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the most senior official responsible for Medicare policy, must be made aware of the harmful effects of these changes and must be asked to reverse them.  We must speak up now to ensure our clients also will be able to.

You can call Medicare directly to voice your complaints, too: 1-800-MEDICARE.

Please use this link from the Center for Medicare Advocacy to complete the message template that will be sent to your members of congress and to the Secretary.  There also is a detailed explanation of the policy changes and their effects posted at atthe Patient Provider Communication website. Please take action and share with others so they can, too.

Folks, it is important to act whether or not you work with Medicare as other funding sources generally look to them when creating and revising their own policy. We can’t risk these inhumane policies spreading to other SGD funders. Please take a minute or two to act on this. The revised deadline is September 5th.

Thanks to the Patient Provider Communication site, Lew Golinker, Melanie Fried-Oken, Amy Goldman, and all who are working tirelessly on this issue.