AACVPR is a leading advocate for the practice of cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, and has a long history of challenging legislation and regulation that negatively impacts the care of patients. Our advocacy efforts are varied to ensure that the interests of our members are made known to a wide array of decision makers.
Click on the following link to access AACVPR's advocacy page for more information.
https://www.aacvpr.org/Advocate
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Find your legislator:
HR 955/S. 1849 & HR 1406/S. 3021 - Support Letter
HR 955/S. 1849, SOS: Sustaining Outpatient Services Act
This bill will exempt certain hospital outpatient services, including cardiac, intensive cardiac, and pulmonary rehabilitation (CR, ICR, PR) from a drastic reimbursement reduction that is based solely on the location of the hospital outpatient service. The Sustaining Outpatient Services Act mandates that Medicare payment for hospital-based CR/ICR/PR services remain under the outpatient payment rate. The 60% reduction in reimbursement for off-campus CR/ICR/PR is unsustainable, and yet, these services are underutilized and are encouraged to expand to treat more beneficiaries than is physically possible. This legislative correction will remove the financial barrier to expanded patient access to these beneficial services.
U.S. House bill # HR 1406/S. 3021, Sustainable Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Services in the Home Act
This bill will allow Medicare beneficiaries to receive CR/ICR/PR services via real-time, audio/visual communication from their home. This hybrid delivery of hospital-based CR/ICR/PR services was effective during the pandemic and allowed more patients to receive these beneficial treatments. Beneficiaries who are rural or located in an area without a brick-and-mortar program, without transportation or the financial means to travel to a center, and other barriers to participation in a CR/ICR/PR program demonstrated comparable benefits to those in center-based programs.
Obviously, HR 955/S. 1849 and HR 1406/S. 3021 are synergistic. Programs are currently at capacity with excessively long waiting lists to even begin CR, ICR, or PR. With these bills, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation services will be able to improve access and meet the increasing demand for these beneficial treatments.
Please support cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services and patients by signing these bills today. Thank you for caring.