URGENT! Please contact your representatives in Washington today... Medicare policies need to change.

Please take a few moments and send the following letter to your representatives in Washington. This is a critical issue that needs to be acted upon immediately.

Dear Honorable Senator Hirono,

 

You have said over and over that you are against cutting Medicare, that you are willing to do everything to fight for the disabled and the senior citizens that depend upon this program. This is now the time for you to prove that you are willing to stand up for the most folder vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries – the disabled that need assistive communication devices.

Please sign the letter “Ensure ALS Patients Retain Access to Critical Communication Tools; Join letter to CMS urging clarification of recent Speech Generating Device policies.” The letter will be open for only a short time; you must sign-on by Friday, September 5, 2014. It is currently sponsored by Honorable Member of Congress Cynthia McMorris-Rodgers, Honorable Member of Congress John Tierney, Honorable Member of Congress Erik Paulsen and the Honorable Senator Collins. Please contact these Representatives and Senators, your colleagues, and support them with this very important legislation.

New Medicare policies severely restrict access to assistive communication devices used by people with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Rett Syndrome, spinal cord injuries, spinal muscular atrophy and other impairments. The following three policies are summarized below:

Capped Rental: As of April 1, 2014, Medicare implemented a policy that will begin denying payment for many of the medically necessary speech generating devices (SGD’s) used while staying at a skilled nursing home or hospice.

Unlocked Devices: Effective December 1, 2014, many severely disabled individuals will lose the ability to access SGD functionalities that provide them with the opportunity to communicate outside the patient’s home. Medicare has stated that it will not allow individuals using Medicare-provided speech generating devices to use their own funds to "unlock" the devices. As of December 1st, Medicare will no longer pay for any device that has even the potential to be unlocked to allow communication that is not face-to-face interaction with other individuals directly in front of device.

Eye-gaze Access: Currently, Medicare has been routinely denying coverage of critical eye-gaze technology for many SGD-eligible beneficiaries. This access method is the only point of access to operate speech generating devices for some individuals, including those with ALS.

We need you to speak up for those who can’t and we need quick action to stop these devastating changes from impacting patients who are in desperate need of access to speech generating devices. Thank you very much for taking the necessary action to stop these new restrictive Medicare policies.

Sincerely,

Richard Raker

Honolulu, Hawaii