Dear Colleagues,
I am forwarding this contact to you in hopes that you will join the fight to keep Medicare coverage for SGDs from changing too much.  Please see the email below from Sarah Blackstone, and know that I will be forwarding more information as I get it.

If you do not wish to have further contact regarding this issue, please accept my apologies and email me back.  I will remove your name immediately. 

thanks for your assistance,
Lisa


Hi All
Attached is a letter/request to you...PLEASE pass it along to AAC stakeholders and engage relevant organizations/agencies.  It's basically a "HEADS UP" drafted on Lew's request.

We describe a strategy that will address the Medicare SGD Coverage Reminder over the next week. The goal is to, once again, ask for your help. The timeline is very short.
  • Lew goes to D.C. to meet with advocates and draft letter to CMS (Tuesday).
  • Letter is distributed to individuals and organizations for signatures (Wednesday and Thursday)
  • Letter is mailed to CMS. It will also request a face-to-face meeting.

As a field, we did this in 2001....we need to do it AGAIN. The consensus now is that the BEST we can do, given the timeline and Medicare's concerns, is to get CMS to remove the SGD Coverage Reminder.

We'll have to wait for another day (another place etc.) to fight for equal access to communication.

If you have any comments, please make sure Lew gets these tomorrow (Monday, May 5). If you have questions, email me at any time. I'll try to collate and get you some answers.

Thanks to you all,
Sarah   



Sarah W. Blackstone, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Community Emergency Response Volunteers (CERV) of the Monterey Peninsula
Augmentative Communication, Inc.
AAC-RERC
1 Surf Way, #237
Monterey, CA 93940



--
Lisa G. Bardach, MS CCC-SLP
Communicating Solutions, LLC
2314 Yorkshire Road
Suite 200
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
phone (734) 973-9670
fax     (734) 975-6970

ALS of Michigan, Inc.
24359 Northwestern Highway, Suite 100
Southfield, MI 48075
248-354-6100 x227
 
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