NewsLine - January 2010 - (Page 16)

Protecting Hospice Rates: New Tools for the New Year First, A Few Highlights From the Past Year 2009 was an exciting and busy year for Hospice Advocates, the NHPCO Public Policy team, and NHPCO afﬁliate, The Alliance for Care at the End of Life. The hospice community weathered an interesting set of challenges, and gained new opportunities, brought on by an everchanging legislative environment and a whirlwind of a national economic forecast. The year started with a bang as NHPCO worked closely with the new Administration and Congress to put a moratorium in place to delay the elimination of the Budget Neutrality Adjustment Factor (BNAF). Building on that momentum, NHPCO and Hospice Advocates worked through the changing seasons to ramp up our national grassroots infrastructure and step up our efforts to educate policy makers on hospice. In April, with 600 Hospice Advocates in attendance, we hosted our most successful Capitol Hill Day to date. Around that time, we also created a nowinvaluable asset to Hospice Advocates in the form of the Hospice Advocacy Web page—a one-stop resource for updates and tools to access members of Congress. Later in the spring, NHPCO re-introduced the Legislative Action Center (LAC) which now boasts 60,000 subscribers and counting. As we moved from the rainy days of spring to the warmth of summer, NHPCO president/CEO, Don Schumacher, reached 1.19 million radio listeners over 548 radio stations about the need for the Obama Administration and Congress to stop cuts in hospice funding. Some two to three months later, we sent summer out in style by raising $5,000 in small donations for advocacy and, perhaps more importantly, gained hundreds of new supporters with the creation of the NHPCO Advocacy Pledge. As we traded in our sunglasses for jackets and scarves, and Congress returned from recess, Hospice Advocates started using video advocacy and blog outreach to convey concern for the policy-related challenges facing hospice. As part of our targeted “Two Cuts Are Too Much” campaign, these tools encouraged Americans to speak out and connect the face of hospice to our message. The energy and enthusiasm of the community continued to grow as Hospice Advocates mobilized during the Congressional health care reform debate. With so much on the line for the hospice community, some Hospice Advocates decided that one Hill day last year was simply not enough! In fact, almost a dozen state organizations worked with NHPCO to orchestrate miniHill Days for their delegations as fall came to a close. will serve as a way for Hospice Advocates to connect in new and innovative ways. HAN will keep advocates in the loop about happenings on the Hill and provide a forum to discuss advocacy efforts and techniques. It will also offer them the opportunity to interface with, educate, and entice the public to become Hospice Advocates—all in real time! Two-Day Capitol Hill Day—and Virtual Lobby Days While our new online tools and resources will serve to enhance our reach and relationships with the media and decision makers, there is no substitute for good, oldfashioned relationship-building. Therefore, Hill Day will be even bigger and better this year. It will be a two-day, meeting-packed event complete with a comprehensive strategy forum and break-out sessions (see the opposite page). In addition to Hill Day, we will host several Congressional brieﬁ ngs to continue our work to cultivate hospice champions in Congress. Our Hospice Advocates will also have additional opportunities to reach out to Congress from their home states through issuebased Virtual Lobby Days. Tapping the contacts and resources of afﬁ liate state organizations to develop even stronger and more numerous Hospice Advocacy leaders will round out our efforts through the changing seasons of 2010. With all the work we are planning to ensure continued access to compassionate end-of-life care, the new year will be another great year for Hospice Advocacy! To learn more, visit the NHPCO Advocacy Web page (www. nhpco.org/advocacy). New in 2010 Now, as another blustery winter is ushered in, the hospice community is facing an all-too-familiar legislative landscape. It is a landscape that may threaten access to quality, end-of-life care for future generations. Thus, expanding the reach of Hospice Advocacy on all levels is this year’s new goal. Hospice Action Network The Alliance for Care at the End of Life is poised to launch the Hospice Action Network (HAN) later this month. This interactive online community will be hosted on social media Web site pages (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) and Michele Matthews is NHPCO’s manager of public policy communications. 16 NewsLine http://www.nhpco.org/advocacy http://www.nhpco.org/advocacy

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NewsLine - January 2010

NewsLine - January 2010
Contents
Strategic Accomplishments in 2009
Strategic Plan for 2010-2012
Protecting Hospice Rates—New Tools for the New Year
2010 Board of Directors
NHF’s Winter Quarterly Report

NewsLine - January 2010