Hosting a Representative with Mike Doyle

I recently had the opportunity to host Representative Michelle Fischbach at one of our outreach clinic sites. Jake Kohn from Lobbyit helped connect Representative Fischbach’s office with me. It started with a phone call from a legislative aid to find out what topics we would like to discuss. After reviewing the AAOE key talking points along with a couple regional issues that are at the top of our radar we found a date for a site visit.

On the day of the site visit Representative Fischbach and her legislative aides arrived right on time. I have been involved in several site visits with elected officials and the majority of them travel with 3-4 team members that perform various roles. One person keeps them moving and on time, one takes down information and takes pictures to promote, one is usually a subject matter (health care) lead to help connect what they are doing to support us or ask how they can support us and the others are leads in areas for other visits for the day.

We gave a brief tour of our facility and explained the services we provide both locally and regionally.  After the tour we sat down with Representative Fischbach and her team. We had provided refreshments and snacks which were greatly appreciated. We spent the next 45 minutes visiting about physician fee schedule cuts, site neutral payments, Medicare Advantage Plans, prior authorization and work force issues. Representative Fischbach was very engaged and was able to comment on some of the issues with her voting on bills.

A few things I like to share with others who aren’t sure about hosting a visit. 

• Remember you are the subject matter expert. 
• They want to hear from their constituents on how they are being affected. 
• They want to be able to help if they can. Their ability to help in the healthcare area does depend on the committees they sit on. 
• You never know who they know or who may need their help on another issue in the future.
• Establishing a relationship makes it easier to call or email in the future about a hot topic. 

As an introvert this is very stressful to me but I always feel energized after the visit and being able to talk about pressing issues with elected officials.

We encourage you to schedule your own visit and let us help you! 

If you’d like to participate in hosting a visit to your facility, please reach out to Cameron Wheeler (cwheeler@lobbyit.com), Karl Stark (kstark@lobbyit.com), or Jennifer Nordquest (jnordquest@aaoe.net) and include the following information: 

- Your specific location (city and state) 

- Your contact information 

- 3-5 Sentences about what your facility does