WASHINGTON, DC – As the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) draws closer to the launch of its new patient awareness campaign, representatives are collecting information from providers and other industry stakeholders regarding consumer perceptions on the issues associated with competitive bidding.
Tell Us About Your Customers’ Awareness of Medicare Issues
AAHomecare will soon be launching a new communications campaign, “Save My Medical Supplies,” aimed directly at patients—your customers—to build public awareness, and a public outcry, from the millions of people who are receiving care from the HME industry. That’s why AAHomecare is asking for your thoughts on your patients’ level of familiarity with Medicare issues and reform.
Please take a moment to complete this brief survey (simply paste the link into your browser): https://aahomecare.wufoo.com/forms/patient-awareness-survey/
Your answers will serve as a guideline for the educational points within AAHomecare’s consumer awareness campaign. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Coming Soon – SaveMyMedicalSupplies.org
In early April, AAHomecare will launch SaveMyMedicalSupplies.org, a website designed to educate consumers about Medicare reform mistakes. SaveMyMedicalSupplies.org is meant to unify our consumer awareness efforts as an industry, providing online tools and resources that consumers, care advocates, and providers can share and take part in while asking for support from Capitol Hill.
Why Now?
The need to educate consumers about Medicare reform mistakes has existed from the very beginning of the competitive bidding process. However, as an industry, we literally can’t afford to wait any longer to spread the word on a public level.
Consumer, provider, and clinician advocacy groups have been bringing Medicare reform mistakes to Medicare’s attention for several years, and as of yet, there have been no changes to address the problems.
At the same time, millions of diabetics and people who use wheelchairs or other medical supplies are being hurt by widespread Medicare reform issues. These issues are negatively affecting people’s health, access to care, and ability to live independently.
“Many, many patients have been affected by these bad policies,” said Tom Ryan, CEO of AAHomecare. “Building awareness in the general Medicare population that their access and choices are being eliminated by these egregious policies is something we’re building into our communication efforts. They are our best advocates.”
With approximately 14 million Medicare recipients vs 36,000 providers in this space, there is no question that their collective voice can surpass ours on Capitol Hill to bring much-needed relief for Medicare beneficiaries.
How You Can Help
AAHomecare will need YOUR help to reach as many Medicare beneficiaries as possible with the resources available on SaveMyMedicalSupplies.org.
To receive weekly updates containing educational resources that you can share on your company website and social media pages, please email Beth Ludwick at AAHomecare – [email protected].
Campaign resources and specifics will be shared with providers who sign up for details via email as the website kick-off date approaches.
Lisa Wells is president of Get Social Consulting Inc.
