Association for Home and Hospice Care

Tough cases used to save program

bniolet — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:56:07 -0500

In another fight against Medicaid belt-tightening, the Association for Home & Hospice Care of N.C. is trying to rally the public against cutting private duty nursing services.

An association lobbyist, Carter Wrenn, posted a video on his blog, Talking about Politics, highlighting the stories of patients with chronic conditions who rely on private duty nursing to live at home, Lynn Bonner reports.

The 6 1/2-minute video, tugs, clubs and pulverizes your heart strings.

At the end (We confess, we had to fast forward. Couldn't take the sorrow.), Tim Rogers, the association's executive vice president, asks viewers to write Gov. Bev Perdue, Lanier Cansler, Department of Health and Human Services secretary and Dr. Craigan Gray, the state Medicaid director, to ask them to restore money for patients who depend on private duty nursing.

Doug Berger ad

bniolet — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:10:50 -0400

Air war: Berger v. home care assoc.

markjohnson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:08:31 -0400

State Sen. Doug Berger is in a war with the trade association for home care businesses that this week took to the air.

Berger supports cutting the budget for home health services, saying a lot of people who get the in-home care really don't need it, Lynn Bonner reports.

The Association for Home and Hospice Care of North Carolina has been battling back for weeks. The association started airing a television ad yesterday that says Berger, a Franklin County Democrat, voted for a $25 million fishing pier days after voting to cut home care for Medicaid patients.

Carter Wrenn, a consultant for the home care association, said it is focusing on Berger, one of the budget writers specializing in health and human services, because he is falsely claiming that 45 percent of the people getting in-home services don't need it.

Wrenn, a longtime Republican political consultant, said Berger incorrectly interpreted state audits to draw that conclusion.

Berger said legislators have to make sure taxpayers' money isn't wasted.

"It is a program out of control," Berger said. "We need to rein in this fraud and abuse."

Berger said he wasn't worried about being a target.

"I have more confidence in the voters that they won't be manipulated by this old-style politcs," he said.

Perdue receives $98k from health PACs

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:11:44 -0400

Beverly Perdue has received $98,500 from health care-related PACs.

Political action committees representing drug companies, health care providers, insurance companies and industry associations were the single largest group of PAC donors to the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, according to campaign finance reports.

They made up about a fourth of the $376,293 she raised from PACs since her re-election in 2004. Other politicians' campaign committees were a close second, contributing $91,933, with about a third of that coming from other Democratic senators.

The biggest donors were the N.C. Hospital Association and the NP PAC, which represents nurse practitioners. Both gave $8,000. PACs for the Asheville Anesthesia Associates and the Association for Home and Hospice Care of N.C. gave $5,000 apiece.

Drug companies whose PACs donated included GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Roche, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Wyeth, Pfizer and Abbott Labs. Pharmacy chains such as Kerr Drug, pharmacist managers Medco Health and Caremark and the PILL PAC, which represents pharmacists, also gave.

Perdue also received money from trade groups: The N.C. Medical Society, the N.C. Health Care Facilities Association, the N.C. Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the N.C. Assisted Living Association, the N.C. Association of Long Term Care Facilities and the N.C. Orthopaedic PAC.

Perdue previously worked at a hospital and has made health care one of the signature issues in her campaign.