Request: Co-Sponsor of HR 1406
Join the AARC in spreading the word about the need to expand access to pulmonary rehabilitation services and to the expertise of RTs by expediting access to include physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and clinical nurse specialists to provide direct supervision, prescribe exercise, administer the programs, and sign treatment plans. Currently, only physicians can provide these services. Ask Congress to cosponsor the Improving Access to Quality Cardiac Rehabilitation Act (H.R. 1956/S. 1986). Let your voice be heard!
Without additional authority from Congress, CMS has no flexibility to permit permanent continuation of virtual cardiac and pulmonary rehab services to Medicare beneficiaries in their homes once the Public Health Emergency ended on May 11, 2023. The waivers under the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) allow cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services to be furnished to patients in their homes as virtual services by physicians or practitioners in a hospital outpatient department through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Without Walls initiative.
Under those waivers, respiratory therapists can furnish virtual pulmonary rehab services when an eligible practitioner bills for the service. Representatives John Joyce (R-PA) and Scott Peters (D-CA) introduced legislation called “the Sustainable Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Services in the Home Act (H.R. 1406)”, which would permanently allow patients to receive in-home cardiac and pulmonary rehab services under Medicare. We need your help to gain co-sponsors for this legislation. Please send this action alert to your representatives to request cosponsors for this important legislation, which will ensure that patients continue to have access to in-home cardiac and pulmonary rehab services even after the PHE ended on May 11, 2023.
Virtual Lobby Week | American Association for Respiratory Care (mstr.app)