Using Your Personal Stories to Advocate for Healthcare with Joseph Mathews

On November 29th, my mother tripped over a threshold and fell and injured her L hand. Having allowed themselves to be roped into an HMO Medicare Advantage Plan) her options were limited to her PCP for the first visit. After two days of waiting (since her PCP was out of the office) she decided to go to the urgent care where she was diagnosed to have 4th and 5th metacarpal fracture and asked to follow up with the Orthopaedic specialist. However, it required a PCP visit for the referral/ They referred her to the Orthopaedic specialist across town (limited coverage plan). As luck would have it, she got a call after a few days saying that office had recently dropped that particular plan. Long story short; two weeks and multiple phone calls later they are close to getting accepted into an Orthopaedic Specialist but no appointment on the books as of December 12, 2023. 

Why am I sharing this personal story? Do you know someone (a patient, a friend, a family member) who has gone through a similar situation? Would you be willing to be their voice if they don’t know how to share their concerns with the representatives both locally and federally? Are you concerned that continued payment cuts can affect patient access and care.  An MGMA survey assessing the potential impact of payment cuts to Medicare rates in 2023, showed 58% of physicians are considering limiting the number of new Medicare patients

Remember legislators work for you! The elected officials and their staffers are people just like you; people who want to improve life in their communities. Members of Congress and their staff depend on subject matter experts like you to create effective legislation and it is not always done by throwing out factual information with straightforward “asks” (which is hard for me to say since I love data). By emotionally engaging the elected officials through powerful personal stories like the one I just shared, we can invite them to become champions on issues that can affect the lives of those we are called to care for. 

“Every policy issue goes through three stages: education, activation and implementation. Congress is a stimulus response institution. And there is nothing more stimulating than having hundreds of public health professionals, families and caregivers meeting with you about an important issue. Advocates have played an integral role in getting politicians to understand public health issues and getting lawmakers motivated to act." (Sen. Edward Markey, Massachusetts)

To hear more about Advocacy and getting involved, make sure you check out Joseph Mathews sesisons, Value-Based Approach to MIPS: Improving Your MIPS Score and Unlocking Revenue Potential: Remote Therapeutic Monitoring in Physical Therapy, at our 2024 Annual Conference in Chicago. Registration is now open!

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 Jake Kohn (jkohn@lobbyit.com) or Jennifer Nordquest (jnordquest@aaoe.net) and include the following information: