Home care and hospice providers set to participate in NAHC's March on Washington

This weekend, hundreds of home care and hospice providers arrive in Washington, DC, for the National Association for Home Care & Hospice March on Washington taking place March 22-25, 2015. NAHC’s conference will raise awareness of key policy issues impacting providers and their ability to care for the growing number of Americans who rely on home health.

Each year, the March on Washington brings together home care and hospice providers from across the country, along with the nation’s most renowned policy experts. Together, they discuss current issues affecting the industry and advocate for policies that let providers give better care.

A leading voice for home care and hospice, NAHC will offer attendees issue-specific panels on key regulatory and legislative concerns. Following the panels, attendees will have the chance to address these concerns with their members of Congress during a Senate Breakfast on Tuesday morning, a House Breakfast on Wednesday morning, and subsequent meetings on Capitol Hill.

This year’s conference comes at a critical time as home care and hospice face new federal regulations that could challenge their ability to give high-quality, cost-effective care. In response, NAHC has led and won two major legal victories in recent months. The first did away with the “physician narrative” in the Face-to-Face regulations promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The second invalidated a rule promulgated by the Department of Labor (DOL) which would change the way overtime is computed for home health agencies and abolish the companionship and live-in exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act. While these were huge victories, neither is permanent, so NAHC remains on guard. At the conference, NAHC will update attendees on its legal actions and make a case for them to join the fight against both DOL and HHS.

Providers will also learn about NAHC’s efforts on the legislative front: making 40 hours full-time under the Affordable Care Act, preventing Congress from imposing home health copayments, extending the Medicare home health rural add-on, and authorizing nurse practitioners and physician assistants to sign orders for home health care. In addition, NAHC is working to expand the use of telehealth and other technology that helps patients stay in their homes and out of costly institutions.

“We can continue to waste precious resources on institutional care or we can embrace proven solutions — namely home care and hospice — to fill the health care needs of our growing senior population,” said NAHC President Val J. Halamandaris. “Not only is home care the right way to save Medicare billions, it is what our seniors need to deal with their increasing and complicated health conditions. Our goal in this march is to educate elected officials about the need to avoid putting obstacles in the way of this care.”