Last week, Hope Warshaw, Missouri AADE Liasion, shared information with the CB members list regarding her experience in D.C.; please take a few minutes to read her suggestions, down below.
Now my thoughts: did you know there are about 3 weeks left in the Missouri General Session?
We know the National stats, according to the CDC.....25.8 million, 8.3% of the national population; 10.9 millions (26.9%) are over age 65----affecting our Medicare dollars; about 215 thousand are younger than age 20!! Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of deaths in the U.S.
What should you say to our Legislators? Tell them every body knows some body with diabetes, even themselves & their staff! Tell them that 46 counties in the state of Missouri have an over 11% incidence of their population with diabetes; are they representing those counties to their best health interests? If their own family members develop diabetes, do they want them to be educated by the internet or their neighbors? Do you hand the car keys to someone who has never sat behind the wheel!?
What about YOU? This initiative has been on the books for quite a while------what is taking so long! Are you willing to risk the health of people with diabetes, your tax dollars, & your jobs to someone else? Think it over-----but not too long!
Nancy Trebilcock, BSN, RN, CDE
Missouri CB Transition Team Chair
Subject: Get YOUR Senators and Rep to Sign on to DSMT Act of 2011 for Direct Medicare Reimbursement
From: hwarshaw@aol.com
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:02:00 -0700
All –
After having an exciting two days on Capitol Hill last week (April 16/17) I want to share my enthusiasm and encourage you to take action in support of AADE’s legislation to get CDEs (credentialed diabetes educators) to become providers directly reimbursed by Medicare.
I urge you to take a few minutes out of your busy lives to take 4 actions:
1) Write to both of your Senators (that’s 2 actions)
2) Write to your Representative (that's 1 action)
3) Sign on to the AADE petition in support of our DSMT Act of 2011 (that's 1 action)
Background on the legislation: The Diabetes Self-Management Training Act of 2011 was introduced August 2011. The legislation continues AADE's effort to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to improve access to diabetes self-management training. This time around the legislation is designed to authorize credentialed diabetes educators (CDEs and BC-ADM) to provide diabetes self-management training services, including as part of telehealth services, under part B of the Medicare program. (This legislation would make CDEs and BC-ADMs Medicare providers who can be directly reimbursed by Medicare for delivering DSMT services.)
Taking action to write to your Senators and Representative: AADE has made this simple as pie. Prior to writing your letter check out whether your Senator has signed on to this legislation: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d112:1:./temp/~bdb3VS:@@@P|/home/LegislativeData.php|. (I can tell you neither MO senator has) Use this link to see whether your Representative has signed on to the legislation: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d112:1:./temp/~bdm2wk:@@@P|/home/LegislativeData.php|. (I can tell you no MO Representative has)
Use this link http://www.diabeteseducator.org/PolicyAdvocacy/Federal_x_State_Legislation.html to go to the page on AADE's website where you can click to write a letter to your Senators (2 – fill in names) and to your Representative (1) (Note these are different clicks on same page.) So this is 3 actions, one letter each to your senators and 1 note to your representative.
Sign on to AADE’s petition: I invite you to take about 30 more seconds (no joke) to sign the petition in support of this legislation:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/support-access-to-diabetes-self-management-training/
Once you take this action, please ask your friends, family and people with diabetes you know to take this action. As you can see we've got some work to do to get to 10,000 signees. (If you've done this previously you can't sign the petition again.)
WE NEED EVERY AADE MEMBER TO TAKE these 4 ACTIONS NOW! It will take no more than 15 minutes! Please put this on your priority to do list. We ALL need to take these actions!
I appreciate your efforts....we're hoping for success this time around!
Hope Warshaw
AADE Board of Directors member, 2011 - 2014