Our summer Virtual Lobby Week continues through Friday, July 14, 2017, so there is still time to reach out to your elected officials. Three telehealth bills have been introduced into the House of Representatives and they all include respiratory therapists as covered providers.
This is great news for the profession. But we’re not done yet. We now need to write to our House members and ask them to sign on as co-sponsors of these bills:
- HR 2550, The Medicare Telehealth Parity Act
- HR 2291, Helping Expand Access to Rural Telemedicine (HEART) Act
- HR 766, Telehealth for Individuals Residing in Public Housing
Your AARC advocacy team encourages you to learn more about the legislation and then use the Capitol Connection page to send your message to your House member. The more messages they receive, the easier it will be for our advocacy team to follow up with House members in person in August, when they’ll be back in their home districts.
Our summer Virtual Lobby Week follows the success of our spring Virtual Lobby Week, when we had 124 members of the AARC’s Political Advocacy Contact Team visited 318 Congressional offices to lobby for these bills. Furthermore, we want to give a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who stepped up to send 32,395 messages back in April. This proves your voice helped make a difference—let’s do it again!
Virtual Lobby Week Resources
Write Your House Member
Email newsroom@aarc.org with questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you.
Heather Willden is the Director of Governance and Strategic Initiatives for the AARC where she works with state affiliates as the HOD liaison. She also manages DEI efforts and strategic initiatives. Connect with her about these topics by email, AARConnect or LinkedIn. When she's not working, you can find her podcasting with her husband, exploring new hiking trails, photographing, and spending time with her family.
