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Choose Home Care Act of 2021
Episode 81 • 9th March 2022 • Aging In Full Bloom • Lisa Stockdale
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The Choose Home Care Act of 2021, introduced by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Todd Young (R-IN), aims to give more seniors the option to receive care at home for 30 days after a hospitalization, rather than going to a skilled nursing facility or other transitional settings.

The legislation would open the door to a variety of home-based services, including skilled nursing, therapy, primary care, personal care, RPM, telehealth, meals, home adaptations and non-emergent transportation.

My guest is Joe Russell, Executive Director at Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice.

Here's how you can take action to help this Act move forward.

And here's a link to helpful tips to get your voice heard by your representatives.

image thanks to thinkstock

Email me, Lisa Stockdale, anytime at aginginfullbloom@gmail.com - Aging in Full Bloom with Lisa Stockdale is sponsored by Capital Health Care Network, an Ohio-based, family-owned and operated company, providing solutions that help seniors age on their own terms. Those solutions include home care, senior living, nursing home and rehab care, and hospice. Learn more at Capital Health Care Network. Follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast player. Android user? http://www.subscribeonandroid.com

Copyright 2024 Lisa Stockdale

Mentioned in this episode:

Aging in Full Bloom with Lisa Stockdale is sponsored by Capital Health Care Network, an Ohio-based, family-owned and operated company, providing solutions that help seniors age on their own terms. Those solutions include home care, senior living, nursing home and rehab care, and hospice. Learn more at Capital Health Care Network.

Transcripts

Lisa Stockdale:

:

Listeners, thank you for joining aging in full bloom with

Lisa Stockdale:

:

Lisa Stockdale. I'm your host, Lisa, and today my guest is

Lisa Stockdale:

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Joe Russell. Joe is the executive director of Ohio Council

Lisa Stockdale:

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for Home Care and Hospice.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Joe and his organization are near and dear to my heart

Lisa Stockdale:

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because my day job, my real job is closely connected to

Lisa Stockdale:

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home health care, and Joe's organization is sort of on the

Lisa Stockdale:

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front lines protecting and advocating for our industry.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Good morning. Good afternoon, Joe.

Joe Russell:

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How are you, Lisa?

Joe Russell:

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Excellent. Thanks for having me today.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Of course, of course.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Tell us about how counsel for home care and hospice, I

Lisa Stockdale:

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think I sort of described it, but you might want listeners

Lisa Stockdale:

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to know a little something more a little something

Lisa Stockdale:

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different.

Joe Russell:

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Absolutely. So the Council for Home Care and Hospice has

Joe Russell:

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been around since 1965.

Joe Russell:

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We started out as a very small, volunteer driven

Joe Russell:

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organization that really just existed to share resources

Joe Russell:

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amongst home care companies.

Joe Russell:

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And then over the years, it's really grown as the industry

Joe Russell:

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has grown. We we specialize in providing more than 600 home

Joe Russell:

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care hospice and palliative care organizations across the

Joe Russell:

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state with education providers support and technical

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assistance, as well as government advocacy and lobbying.

Joe Russell:

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And we've we've really come into our own and we're really

Joe Russell:

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just trying to get ready for the new world.

Joe Russell:

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Covid is really accelerated what post-acute health care

Joe Russell:

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looks like, and we're trying to lead the way for our member

Joe Russell:

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agencies to to create a world in which more people can stay

Joe Russell:

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home as they get older.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Yeah. And I just want I want to read an excerpt from an

Lisa Stockdale:

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article I wrote recently, which will be published soon.

Lisa Stockdale:

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It's called Receiving care at home has its advantages, and

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the first paragraph goes like this.

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An emotional attachment to home has now been validated by

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science. But seriously, we don't need science to tell us

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what we already know.

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Our relationship to home is real.

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The concept of home rises above the constructs of brick and

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mortar or dwelling home provides an unrivaled sense of

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security, belonging, privacy and comfort.

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It's the place we make memories, retreat from the public

Lisa Stockdale:

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and care for ourselves and our families.

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And what we know Joe is home health care providers or

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advocates is that people want to age at home.

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They want to get well at home, they want to die at home

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homes where it's at.

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It is our comfort zone and we're in a unique position as

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providers to help them realize that desire.

Lisa Stockdale:

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And I think that's why we're in love with this industry.

Lisa Stockdale:

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You referenced post-acute.

Lisa Stockdale:

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We always talk in terms that the average Joe or the

Lisa Stockdale:

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consumer doesn't understand.

Lisa Stockdale:

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We're talking about after the hospital, after the nursing

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home, you can go home and continue to receive medical

Lisa Stockdale:

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services there, whether you're on the road to recovery or

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whether you're at end of life.

Lisa Stockdale:

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That's where we have you covered on the home care and

Lisa Stockdale:

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hospice side, and we're passionate about this industry.

Lisa Stockdale:

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I think you have an idea of why I am.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Why are you so passionate about it, Joe?

Lisa Stockdale:

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And I know you are.

Joe Russell:

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I am very passionate about home care, and we actually refer

Joe Russell:

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to it as health care at home because it encompasses so many

Joe Russell:

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different things.

Joe Russell:

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Home care and how it works is different than hospice, but

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both of those are primarily provided in the home.

Joe Russell:

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And then you get into, you know, other services like

Joe Russell:

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transportation and durable medical equipment.

Joe Russell:

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And all of a sudden there is a lot of complexity to trying

Joe Russell:

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to deliver services in the home.

Joe Russell:

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I'm actually passionate about health care at home because

Joe Russell:

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of my personal experience.

Joe Russell:

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I've watched my grandparents utilize hospice and I they

Joe Russell:

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were lucky enough to be able to receive those services in

Joe Russell:

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their home and a little bit of my background.

Joe Russell:

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I spent a number of years as a lobbyist for the

Joe Russell:

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Developmental Disabilities Association here in the state of

Joe Russell:

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Ohio, and that's near and dear to my heart because I have

Joe Russell:

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relatives who are developmentally disabled and.

Joe Russell:

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I have watched the difference between the life they can

Joe Russell:

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lead in the community versus the life they can lead if

Joe Russell:

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they're quote unquote institutionalized.

Joe Russell:

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Yeah. So when I when I was approached to take this

Joe Russell:

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position, I actually was not a home care expert by any

Joe Russell:

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means, but I already knew and I already had a sense that

Joe Russell:

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this is where things were moving because of consumer

Joe Russell:

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demand, because of costs that are rising.

Joe Russell:

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It's less expensive and higher.

Joe Russell:

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Have better customer satisfaction, so to speak, when when

Joe Russell:

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that health care is provided in the home versus having to

Joe Russell:

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get in the car or go somewhere or even stay somewhere.

Joe Russell:

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So it is it is near and dear to my heart.

Joe Russell:

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This is not just a job to me, and actually, if you talk to

Joe Russell:

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our staff or board, they'll tell you, Joe is very

Joe Russell:

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passionate. I'm very passionate about about this work, and

Joe Russell:

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I'm very dedicated to continuing to push for changes that

Joe Russell:

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are going to make living in the community and receiving

Joe Russell:

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health care in the community better.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Yeah, and full disclosure.

Lisa Stockdale:

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So one of the owners of the company that I work for and the

Lisa Stockdale:

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company that sponsors this podcast, Capital Health Care

Lisa Stockdale:

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Network, one of the owners, Care Bernsen, is a board member

Lisa Stockdale:

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at Ohio Council, and she has told me how crazy passionate

Lisa Stockdale:

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you are. And that's a good thing because we can talk about

Lisa Stockdale:

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protecting an industry and people might start to take a

Lisa Stockdale:

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nap. But really, we're protecting people, people who are

Lisa Stockdale:

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vulnerable. What makes them vulnerable is the fact that

Lisa Stockdale:

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they have a health care challenge.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Any time we have a health care challenge, we become

Lisa Stockdale:

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vulnerable so that it is all about people, people who

Lisa Stockdale:

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deserve services and they are readily available.

Lisa Stockdale:

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And we just have to figure out a way to help the powers

Lisa Stockdale:

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that be help us keep doing what we're doing.

Lisa Stockdale:

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And I understand we have some challenges when it comes to

Lisa Stockdale:

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that. Talk to me about that.

Joe Russell:

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Well, I love the fact that you just talked about health

Joe Russell:

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care, especially in this space being all about people and

Joe Russell:

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all about. It's not just the patient, right?

Joe Russell:

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It's not just the person receiving services, it's also

Joe Russell:

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their family because we're interacting with families and

Joe Russell:

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we're going into people's very personal space to provide

Joe Russell:

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them, in some cases, very personal health care related

Joe Russell:

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services. So we have to be about people.

Joe Russell:

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And in fact, if you talk to many of the members of the

Joe Russell:

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association, they'll tell you, you know, we make.

Joe Russell:

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We don't make decisions based solely on business.

Joe Russell:

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We make decisions based upon how we're serving our

Joe Russell:

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community and how we can positively impact our community.

Joe Russell:

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The problem is, is that we spend a lot of our time at the

Joe Russell:

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administrative level focused on the business of health

Joe Russell:

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care. And that's not because that's not because of our own

Joe Russell:

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doing. It is sort of the nature of the beast.

Joe Russell:

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And so when I'm having conversations with the Department of

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Medicaid or the Department of Health or the General

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Assembly, a lot of those, a lot of those patients, a lot of

Joe Russell:

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those problems are the business of.

Joe Russell:

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Of health care and in it it bogs you down, and it's

Joe Russell:

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disappointing because, you know, there's a lot of things

Joe Russell:

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that are barriers to individuals being able to receive more

Joe Russell:

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care in the home, and it's directly related directly.

Joe Russell:

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It's directly related to the business of health care, and

Joe Russell:

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we're working on that.

Joe Russell:

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We're going to continue to chip away.

Joe Russell:

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But that the point about being all about people is exactly

Joe Russell:

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what we want for health care at home.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Yeah. And fortunately, the work that we have to do to

Lisa Stockdale:

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protect the people who benefit from this industry is knee

Lisa Stockdale:

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deep in bureaucratic weeds, if you will.

Lisa Stockdale:

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And it isn't always fun, but you your you folks are getting

Lisa Stockdale:

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it done. Is there anything on the horizon right now that is

Lisa Stockdale:

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particularly challenging or that you would want the general

Lisa Stockdale:

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public to understand?

Joe Russell:

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Definitely. I think there's there's two big areas.

Joe Russell:

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One is in regards to how folks insurance works with

Joe Russell:

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providers, and this may not be something that that

Joe Russell:

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patients. Often think about, but, you know, when you start

Joe Russell:

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to think about, okay, if I want home care, who can I have,

Joe Russell:

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who can provide those services, the people that might be

Joe Russell:

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available in your insurance network might not be the best

Joe Russell:

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providers. They might be, but they might not be either.

Joe Russell:

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And a lot of times.

Joe Russell:

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And this is becoming more and more of an issue is where,

Joe Russell:

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you know, the health plans are are in between the provider

Joe Russell:

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and the patient in a way that makes it very difficult for

Joe Russell:

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the provider to to do it, to do their job.

Joe Russell:

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And so we're continually building relationships, we're

Joe Russell:

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continually having conversations and trying to drive

Joe Russell:

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positive changes that will lead to better relationships

Joe Russell:

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between the health plans and home health and hospice

Joe Russell:

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agencies. But the really big thing going on right now that

Joe Russell:

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all your listeners really need to know about is the Choose

Joe Russell:

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Home Care Act.

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This legislation is has received bi partisan, bicameral

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support in Congress.

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And what it would essentially do is create a new benefit in

Joe Russell:

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the Social Security that when and if you get to a point

Joe Russell:

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where you need skilled nursing care, that you automatically

Joe Russell:

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get a choice.

Joe Russell:

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You get that care at home or if you want to go into a

Joe Russell:

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nursing facility now, it doesn't mean that you're that you

Joe Russell:

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can't. It's just we want to make sure people have a choice

Joe Russell:

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because there's too many people that are kind of forced to

Joe Russell:

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go into an institutionalized environment and they don't

Joe Russell:

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really want to, but there's no other choice for them.

Joe Russell:

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I think the fact of the matter is is that the home health

Joe Russell:

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benefit for Medicare and and for Medicaid both are

Joe Russell:

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outdated. They really need to kind of be updated so that it

Joe Russell:

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reflects the current health care system because a lot of

Joe Russell:

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these benefits were drawn many, many years ago when health

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care at home looked very different.

Joe Russell:

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And so we're really trying to effect positive change in

Joe Russell:

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twos home.

Joe Russell:

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Would really allow that to take place.

Joe Russell:

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We were hoping that it could get passed in this Congress.

Joe Russell:

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We're going to continue to work towards that.

Joe Russell:

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But regardless of what happens, we are going to continue to

Joe Russell:

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work on this even if it doesn't pass this Congress.

Joe Russell:

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It's a really, really important development.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Ok, let me ask you some questions because you have inspired

Lisa Stockdale:

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a couple of burning questions for this Congress.

Lisa Stockdale:

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When does this Congress end?

Joe Russell:

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This Congress will end on December 31st of 2022.

Joe Russell:

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Okay.

Lisa Stockdale:

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If we have bipartisan support, what's holding us up?

Joe Russell:

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Well, Lisa, how much time you got?

Joe Russell:

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Yeah, it's it's politics, and it's not necessarily politics

Joe Russell:

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that are attached to this issue of Washington.

Joe Russell:

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And I'm probably not sharing anything that's that's mind

Joe Russell:

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blowing here. But Washington, in the state of our current

Joe Russell:

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country, is a divided place.

Joe Russell:

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And getting anything done has proven to be very

Joe Russell:

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challenging. And so although this is a particular issue

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that, you know, has a lot of support, which, by the way, is

Joe Russell:

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a very good sign.

Joe Russell:

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Even though it does it, there's a lot of sort of different

Joe Russell:

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pieces and parts that have to fall together right at the

Joe Russell:

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right time in order to make it happen.

Joe Russell:

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Okay. And so and I think if it was just this issue alone, I

Joe Russell:

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don't I don't see that there.

Joe Russell:

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Would be much of an issue, but, you know, let's be honest

Joe Russell:

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that there are some stakeholders that are taking a look at

Joe Russell:

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this and they don't love it. And it's undoubtedly because

Joe Russell:

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they're starting to see, OK, you know, for example, if you

Joe Russell:

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if you're an operator of a skilled nursing facility and

Joe Russell:

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your census is struggling, you know the idea that now

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you're going to struggle even more is a tough pill to

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swallow in, you know, in a free country with a with a

Joe Russell:

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Republican form of government.

Joe Russell:

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Everybody has a voice, and I think Congress is doing its

Joe Russell:

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due diligence to make sure that this is the right policy

Joe Russell:

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for for the country.

Joe Russell:

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We obviously think it is and we will continue to push for

Joe Russell:

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it. But but that's just sort of the high, high level

Joe Russell:

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explanation of what can kind of hold things up.

Lisa Stockdale:

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But it's important for our listeners to understand that even

Lisa Stockdale:

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though we say it sounds good on all fronts, there's always

Lisa Stockdale:

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somebody opposing everything.

Lisa Stockdale:

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And even though we say we have bipartisan support, it

Lisa Stockdale:

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doesn't mean that this is of high importance to everybody.

Lisa Stockdale:

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You didn't say that. So I'll say that and I'll own it.

Lisa Stockdale:

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It's important to us because we do this and we see the

Lisa Stockdale:

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people who directly benefit, and we know that we can

Lisa Stockdale:

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enhance people's quality of life by providing an

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experience, as you referenced the customer service piece.

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It's just a happier place to be.

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It's your comfort zone.

Lisa Stockdale:

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And there's a bunch of evidence to suggest that people

Lisa Stockdale:

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recover quicker at home, but it doesn't mean it's at the

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top of every politician's to do list to help the home care

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industry and the elderly who need services at home.

Lisa Stockdale:

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It's it's at the top of our list and we're working to make

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it more of a priority for them.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Absolutely. And it's called choose the Choose Home Care

Lisa Stockdale:

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Act.

Joe Russell:

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Yes, in the home.

Joe Russell:

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And you know, there's two.

Joe Russell:

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We've got some really great partners in Washington that are

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leading the charge on this.

Joe Russell:

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The National Association for Home Care and Hospice, led by

Joe Russell:

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Bill Darby, has done an incredible job sort of leading the

Joe Russell:

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charge on trying to get this done.

Joe Russell:

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The Partnership for Quality Health Care Working, being led

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by Joanne Cunningham, has done another spectacular job in

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helping organize advocates to push.

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But we're really, really what what people can do, who are

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listening. If you're interested in this and you want to get

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involved is reach out to your legislator, both your U.S.

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representative and your U.S.

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senator and ask them to co-sponsor the bill, ask him

Joe Russell:

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they'll know what shoes home is.

Joe Russell:

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We've been doing a lot of advocacy, but ask them to

Joe Russell:

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co-sponsor, choose home.

Joe Russell:

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The more co-sponsors we have, the more likely it is for.

Joe Russell:

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People to or for legislators to for it to get passed,

Joe Russell:

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essentially. And the other thing you can do is we actually

Joe Russell:

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have an advocacy center on our website where people can

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sign up for it and can get updates, not just on this issue.

Joe Russell:

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The Choose Home issue, but also all the issues that we've

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been working on. People can go to WW W o CHC H.

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Org slash advocacy slash take action.

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And there's a button to click to sign up, you just put your

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name and contact information and then you're in the system

Joe Russell:

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and periodically you'll get you'll get updates on things

Joe Russell:

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we're working on, including shoes home.

Joe Russell:

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So.

Lisa Stockdale:

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And is there a mechanism on the website for us to actually

Lisa Stockdale:

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contact our representatives?

Joe Russell:

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That is a great question.

Joe Russell:

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I am trying to.

Joe Russell:

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Yeah, so you'll you'll be able to to get connected with

Joe Russell:

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your legislators through through this and if not.

Joe Russell:

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There are other resources on the advocacy portion of our

Joe Russell:

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website to make connections,

Lisa Stockdale:

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And we'll make sure when the podcast publishes that we give

Lisa Stockdale:

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accurate information about what the easiest way to do this

Lisa Stockdale:

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is because everybody wants ease of use, right?

Lisa Stockdale:

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Everybody wants it to be easy and there.

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I don't know if there's a number, if there's a phone number

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that you can call or not, but we'll find all that out and

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make sure that we share that with our audience.

Lisa Stockdale:

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You know, when it does publish because we think that's

Lisa Stockdale:

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important. Now I want to ask a few more questions.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Sure. So is home health care as an industry ready to rise

Lisa Stockdale:

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to the challenge in terms of providing the kind of care at

Lisa Stockdale:

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home that a nursing home perhaps provides?

Lisa Stockdale:

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You know, in a nursing home, I mean, aren't those two

Lisa Stockdale:

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different things?

Joe Russell:

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Yeah, that's a really great question, and it's a complex

Joe Russell:

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answer. But the the simple answer is yes.

Joe Russell:

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So it's important to understand how health care at home

Joe Russell:

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looks compared to other health care delivery systems.

Joe Russell:

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You know, when you go into a hospital, you sort of have an

Joe Russell:

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expectation of what a hospital is and what it looks like,

Joe Russell:

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right? And no matter where you go in this country in a

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hospital, they're fairly, fairly similar.

Joe Russell:

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I mean, obviously, some of them have better specialties

Joe Russell:

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than others or, you know, whatever, but they're kind of

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similar health care homes, a little bit different, and it's

Joe Russell:

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because it's so consumer driven.

Joe Russell:

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We've got programs at our hospital based programs, our

Joe Russell:

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nursing facility based programs.

Joe Russell:

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They're independent.

Joe Russell:

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They're large, they're small.

Joe Russell:

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There's we have members that literally only serve their

Joe Russell:

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local community. That's it.

Joe Russell:

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They don't have any big goals of going national or anything

Joe Russell:

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like that. So obviously the capabilities between those

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different entities are different.

Joe Russell:

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Mm hmm. And then also to the way that the programs shake

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out at the state of Ohio, with there being so much

Joe Russell:

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fragmentation between these different payer sources in

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different programs means that different programs have

Joe Russell:

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developed different areas of specialties.

Joe Russell:

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So, for example, some people might focus their attention on

Joe Russell:

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what we call nonmedical care or just your simple home care,

Joe Russell:

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because that's what they thrive in, where other agencies

Joe Russell:

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might focus entirely on the skilled portion of of home

Joe Russell:

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care, which we refer to as home health.

Joe Russell:

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Mm-hmm. But at the end of the day, all the work that we're

Joe Russell:

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doing and working with our members is to to to get them

Joe Russell:

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prepared for this new era of health care.

Joe Russell:

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If they're not already the the thought of.

Joe Russell:

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When you ask most people what what home care is and what

Joe Russell:

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you know, it's a lot of people will either not know or

Joe Russell:

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they'll say, Oh, that's when someone goes in their house

Joe Russell:

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and has a cup of coffee with them to keep them company.

Joe Russell:

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And I assure you, nothing could be further from the truth.

Joe Russell:

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Our members are treating very complex patients with

Joe Russell:

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multiple comorbidities.

Joe Russell:

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We everywhere from kids that have traits and, you know,

Joe Russell:

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breathing tubes all the way up to advanced diseased

Joe Russell:

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individuals who you know are, we're just trying to manage,

Joe Russell:

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manage them at this point.

Joe Russell:

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So who you know, who lived a long life?

Joe Russell:

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Great lives? And everything in between.

Joe Russell:

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So we definitely have the capability to meet the future of

Joe Russell:

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the health care needs, but it's going to it's going to take

Joe Russell:

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it's going to take some more work and there are other

Joe Russell:

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extenuating circumstances that are outside our industry's

Joe Russell:

:

control that also also play into that.

Lisa Stockdale:

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And that's where you say, like when I think of counsel, I

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always think advocacy.

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But there's this educational piece as well, like getting

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the industry prepared to deal with the challenges coming

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and the challenges at hand and the challenges that we

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didn't expect that hit a smack in the face.

Lisa Stockdale:

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And, you know, say, March of 2020, if you were in Ohio,

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might have been slightly different depending on where you

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live in the country.

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But there's these sort of dual purposes of your

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organization, and that's one of the reasons that we value

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and support what you do.

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And the other piece that you alluded to was that.

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And I want to say this because I want the the public to

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understand as someone who works for a home health care

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provider, if it were up to me and if it were up to the

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owners of the company that I work for, if it were up to my

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boss, if we're up to the nurses and the physical and

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occupational and speech therapist and the back office

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staff, we would take care of every sick elder that knocked

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on our door. No one would ever be turned away.

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We can't do that because there's this little thing called

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reimbursement, and we have to make enough money to keep the

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doors open, which means occasionally we have to make a

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profit. And so if on the back end insurances aren't willing

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to give us enough money to do that, we have a problem.

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And then the other thing is, if they're not willing to

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allow enough visits, you know, say they say, Oh, you can

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only have six physical therapy visits, but maybe the

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patient needs 10 or 12 in order to realize recovery.

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That puts us in a pickle.

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So we're doing the best we can, and home care is not unique

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in this. I mean, we could.

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The nursing homes face the same challenges, but a lot of

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times it's the insurance companies, and I'm not trying to

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paint them bad or color them bad.

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But I'm just saying making a profit shouldn't be a bad

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thing. It's it's a requirement in order to stay open in

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order to continue to provide care.

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And so in order to do that, we need fair reimbursement.

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If that isn't happening or if it's only happening for

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certain segments of the population, that puts us in a bad

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spot. And so we're doing the best we can, and that's why we

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need to fight the good fight.

Joe Russell:

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Well, Lisa, if I may, you know, just to kind of drill down a

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little bit more so people understand what it is we're

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talking about here. Yeah, the the state of Ohio in this

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past biennium, budget increased home health services by six

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point one percent, which in a one or even a two year period

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isn't. Isn't that bad.

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It's it's not spectacular, but it's not horrible.

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But when you take into consideration the fact that there

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had been that the reimbursement levels were at 1998 levels

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prior to the sixty one point one percent increase.

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Mm hmm. It just blows out the budget.

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So what we're seeing is, you know, people are losing 30

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cents on every dollar that it costs to provide a Medicare

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recipient home care and people can't do it anymore.

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And and so if you are.

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Ohio in with less resources and you happen to be on the

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Medicaid program, chances are that every day that goes by,

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your ability to get access to home care is going to be more

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and more diminished because those Medicaid recipients are

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being crowded out by Medicare recipients.

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When when the company has the same staff and there's

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providing the same services, there are just two different

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people paying the the bill.

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It becomes very, very challenging.

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So you're absolutely right that, you know, no, nobody's in

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this business to make a ton of money.

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If you were, this isn't the business you would choose.

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But at the end of the day, the end of the day, health care,

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even though it's a fully regulated market, it is a

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commodity market because it relies on you giving me

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something or me giving you something.

Joe Russell:

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And so at a minimum, we need to have our costs covered.

Joe Russell:

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And unless, you know, policymakers really put their heads

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together to say, OK, all of health care is moving into

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community direction, we need to invest in that.

Joe Russell:

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And look, we're not against being held to certain quality

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standards. You know, there's a big cost driver for the

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state is hospitalizations.

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We have a very unique ability to help these health plans

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and the state of Ohio keep people out of the hospital.

Joe Russell:

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But unfortunately, that there's just no mechanism for that

Joe Russell:

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right now. And it's really problematic.

Joe Russell:

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So we're going to continue to see problems like that unless

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our elected leaders and policymakers kind of come to the

Joe Russell:

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table and say, Hey, let's figure this out.

Lisa Stockdale:

:

All right. We're almost out of time.

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Bottom line is we need the public's help to continue to do

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what we're doing, to do it for everybody to do it with the

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highest quality in terms of delivery of care.

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Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice Joe Russell.

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He's the executive director.

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He's the fella talking to us right now.

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They're behind us.

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But we need you to push some buttons.

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Contact your local representative, House of Representatives

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or the Senate and tell them to co-sponsor this bill.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Choose home care.

Joe Russell:

:

Absolutely. Thank you, Lisa.

Joe Russell:

:

Appreciate what you're doing.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Hey, we appreciate what you're doing and we'll stay in touch

Lisa Stockdale:

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and we'll circle back around and see whether or not this

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Congress gets it done.

Lisa Stockdale:

:

They've got time. It's only March right now.

Joe Russell:

:

It's got time. Yeah, when when you've got it up and posted,

Joe Russell:

:

send it all over to me and we'll blast it out on our

Joe Russell:

:

circuits.

Lisa Stockdale:

:

Sounds good, Joe.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Thank you for your work.

Joe Russell:

:

Thanks, Lisa. I appreciate you.

Lisa Stockdale:

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Thank you. Listeners, we hope you enjoyed the program till

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next time. May the road rise to meet you.

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