Congressman Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) has introduced H.R. 3790, legislation to repeal the flawed DMEPOS competitive bidding program. The bipartisan legislation has 47 cosponsors, but more support from both Democrats and Republicans is needed if the bill is to have a chance of being passed.

 

NASL is launching a grassroots initiative to help build support for this legislation, and we are seeking your help in directing your employees to the NASL Advocacy Center to urge their legislators to cosponsor H.R. 3790.

 

It remains unclear whether Congress might address problems with the competitive bidding program as part of health care reform or perhaps in subsequent legislation, so it is important to continue the process of educating legislators and building support for repeal legislation. By expanding the number of cosponsors for this legislation, we can demonstrate widespread support for eliminating the DMEPOS competitive bidding program.

 

A strong showing by NASL members in this advocacy effort will help generate a flow of constituent letters to congressional offices regarding the repeal legislation, and it would provide a tangible measure of success as the list of cosponsors grows. 

 

 

The NASL Advocacy Center is open for business and is primed to facilitate grassroots action by NASL members and their employees on the DMEPOS competitive bidding issue.  This Web-based grassroots communications tool is located at www.capwiz.com/nasl.

 

Please urge your employees to visit the NASL Advocacy Center and send messages to their legislators. The site is easy to use and requires a minimum amount of effort.

 

A sample letter is posted on the site, and while we encourage people to personalize their messages, it is not required.  Employees can send e-mail messages to their legislators simply by adding their names and addresses to the letter we have prepared.  People sending messages through the site will receive a thank you message from NASL.

 

It is not necessary for people to know the names and addresses of their legislators in order to send messages.  All we need is a person’s Zip Code in order to match them to their legislator – the advocacy center does the matching automatically.  The site is set up so that every person clicking the “send” button will generate one of two different messages to their representative. One message will urge members to cosponsor H.R. 3790, and a thank you message will be generated for representatives that have already cosponsored the bill.

 

We have succeeded in sending nearly 47,000 advocacy messages to Congress during the past three years.  The NASL Advocacy Center provides an easy way for your employees to register their concerns with their elected representatives and senators.