Nebraskans Demonstrate the Power of the Pen
September 6, 2007
When legislation was introduced into Congress earlier this year to formally establish pulmonary rehabilitation as a Medicare benefit, the AARC and other organizations marshaled the forces, asking their members to write their Senators and Representatives in support of the bills.
You and your colleagues did just that, and now we’re beginning to see the results. Case in point: in response to all the letters he received on the topic, Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson recently sent two of his staffers to visit pulmonary rehabilitation programs across the state to learn first hand how these programs benefit Medicare patients.
Great Plains RRTs Kim Bobo, left, and Sharron Nejedly, center, and Department Director Shelley Martinez, right, appreciated the opportunity to show off their pulmonary rehab program to Sen. Nelson's aides.
Sharron Nejedly, RRT, who works in the pulmonary rehab program at Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte, was one of the hundreds of AARC members who sent multiple letters to her members of Congress using the AARC’s Capitol Connection web site and was pleased to learn her program was one of the ones on Senator Nelson’s list.
“Senator Nelson sent two of his aides — Mr. Swanton and Mr. Berge — to make site visits to pulmonary rehab departments in Nebraska to talk about supporting the bill S. 329, and we were lucky enough to be one of those sites in North Platte,” says the Registered Respiratory Therapist. “They visited with our CEO first and then sat down with me for about 15 minutes.”
Nejedly made good use of the time, going over the number of patients served by her program and the lengths to which many of them go to participate. “We have about 100 active Phase 3 clients that come two to three times a week, and about 20 Phase 2 clients that come three times a week,” she says. “One lady drives 100 miles round trip three times a week. She's on the lung transplant list, and we're the closest facility with a pulmonary rehab department.”
She also explained how the program keeps people healthy and out of the hospital by encouraging them to be active and by looking for infections so they can be caught before they worsen into something requiring hospitalization.
“If Medicare decided not to reimburse us and we had to close (the program), then those 120 people would be in the hospital a lot more often, raising Medicare costs,” she told the Senator’s staffers. She went on to point out that her program represents just one site and urged them to think how the nation would be affected if pulmonary rehab didn’t exist and Medicare had to bear the burden of increased morbidity among these patients.
Emphasizing the cost saving aspects of the program hit home with the staffers, she says. “They certainly got the big picture right away.”
Nejedly says the whole experience left her “pleased and amazed that the system really works, and that they really do read the e-mails that are sent. I'm sure they get lots. Senator Nelson must be proactive, and sure won my vote for the next election.”
She plans to keep emphasizing the benefits of pulmonary rehab to her members of Congress as well, particularly later on this month, when the Great Plains Regional program will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a big event that’s already lined up media coverage in the area, including a live radio broadcast from the site on the day of the celebration.
Look for an article on the festivities and an update on Nejedly’s legislative efforts in an upcoming issue of AARC Times. In the meantime, consider how you, too, can support the pulmonary rehab bills and other important respiratory legislation pending in Congress by visiting the AARC’s Capitol Connection web site.