I wrote several posts this week about calling and emailing your Representative and Senators from your state.   The idea is to apply pressure to them so that they apply pressure to Medicare/CMS and these proposed cuts go away while in the proposal stage.  If this doesn’t work, then we have to deal with the agency about these cuts and it makes it much more difficult.

So, if you didn’t do this already, take a few minutes and call your members of Congress…. three simple phone calls that could help you in the long run.  If these cuts go through, your favorite tech may go away, or your favorite nurse may vanish, or your center may close.  Is that enough to motivate you?  Are you in a small dialysis center that only has about 12 chairs and two shifts?  Then, you of all people should be calling.

Are you in a center run by a large provider like Fresenius or Davita?  Do you think you’re safe from the effects of these cuts?  Hardly.  They will certainly use the cuts as an excuse to layoff a tech or two, or a nurse, or those new chairs they promised. Gone.  “It was the 10 percent Medicare cuts!” they’ll say.

“I don’t have Medicare,” you say.  Sure, for now, you’re covered by private pay insurance.  But, after 30 months, that goes away and your primary coverage converts to Medicare.  It’s the law.  Then what are you going to do?  Look, if you’re covered by private insurance you can’t hide.  You can’t fail to take action.

So, call your Congressperson now.  None of us are protected.  To find the phone number and email of your Representative and Senators  in Congress, use this page from Dialysis Patient Citizens.  They even walk you through each call and tell you what to say.  Three simple calls.  Most will be answering services and you will just record your message! The first one is the hard one.  After that you’re a wiz at it!  So CLICK HERE and call NOW!

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