Arkansas PACT Visits Congressional Offices in Washington DC

John Campbell, RRT and Theresa Gramlich, RRT both joined about 100 other RTs in Washington DC to participate in the annual Political Advocacy Contact Team effort to bring issues of importance to our Congressional decision-makers. On Monday, February 6th, all of the RTs met for a day long series of meetings that updated all members on the issues facing our profession, and lobbying tips before meeting our Congressional delegation. The most important issues currently facing our profession include the following:

• HR 964: a bill to recognize the services of respiratory therapists under Medicare's Home Health Services Benefit. Currently, respiratory therapy is reimbursed but only if it is provided by a nurse or physical therapist. Thus, patients who need the services of a respiratory therapist are denied access.
• S 1440: Known as the “Pulmonary and Cardiac Rehabilitation Act of 2005”, this bill seeks to provide a national coverage policy that will ensure that individuals are not denied or limited access to pulmonary rehabilitation.
• BSRT commissions in the military. Currently there is no active legislation regarding this matter, but several members of Congress, especially Congressman Vic Snyder, are very interested in looking into this possibility.

On Tuesday, February 7th, all the PACT representatives visited with their respective members of Congress, or their legislative staff to lobby for passage of these issues. Arkansas is very fortunate to have all but one of its Congressional delegation sign on as co-sponsors of HR 964. And if a companion bill to HR 964 is introduced into the Senate, Senators Lincoln and Pryor have stated their support for its passage as well. Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) introduced the Pulmonary and Cardiac

Rehabilitation Act in July of 2005. This bill is gaining bipartisan support in the senate, and also has as one of its co-sponsors, Senator Mark Pryor. As of March 2, 2006, a companion bill to S 1440 had been introduced into the House. Congressman Ross, Congressmen Berry and Snyder also support this bill. Of other interest is the fact that Senator Lincoln and Congressman Vic Snyder, Congressman Mike Ross, and Congressman John Boozman all belong to the Congressional COPD Caucus.

What is needed now is for all Arkansas Respiratory Therapists to write their Congressmen and urge them to support the passage of these bills. This can easily be done by logging on to the AARC website and clicking on Capitol Connection. It doesn’t take a lot of writing or a lot of time, but it could make a huge difference in the scope of practice for our profession.