Advocate Toolkit

Thanks for becoming a TAHC&H Advocate! Until you receive the next action alert via email,  we have laid out some easy ways to put advocacy in action below. We hope you tell your coworkers to sign up as a TAHC&H Advocate as well! 

1) Know the names of your state and federal legislators. Find them here, print it out and post somewhere you will see often (like at your desk)!

2) Reach out to your legislative offices. Call the district offices of your member of Congress, state representative, and state senator, then introduce yourself as a constituent and offer to be a resource on health care issues.

3) Watch free webinars to learn strategies to have effective meetings with office holders.

Webinar by Congress Avenue Partners and Akin Gump

Webinar Part II by Congress Avenue Partners and Akin Gump

Webinar by the Congressional Management Foundation

4) Sign up for email newsletters from legislative offices, state agencies and candidate campaigns. These will keep you current on the political climate, policy priorities and events across Texas.

5) Attend a campaign event, town hall, or other community events where your legislator will be. Legislators often hold town halls, coffee breaks, or maintain office hours in order to stay engaged with constituents. On the campaign trail, candidates often attend several events a day including fundraisers, block walking or phone banking with campaign volunteers, and other community events.

6) Follow your elected officials on Twitter and Facebook. Retweet any pro healthcare or home health tweets! Try @TAHCH! 

TAHCH members from Foundation Management Services on a legislative visit in Washington DC.

Scheduling a legislative visit, where a constituent meets with their state or federal representative to discuss home health services and policy priorities, is the most effective step you can take towards promoting and protecting home health services. While TAHC&H schedules state and federal lobby days each year for group visits, we encourage advocates to build upon those connections with their legislators in-district.

How to schedule
Call or email the legislative office, speak with the scheduler, and ask for appointment availability in-district. Let TAHC&H know about the upcoming visit and we can help you tailor talking points.

What to talk about
Legislators want to know about the services you provide and your agency's footprint in their district.
Bring a copy of TAHC&H legislative priorities, a one-pager on a specific issue that affects you, and anecdotes of patients you serve in their district (photos, testimonial, documents).
Avoid using too much healthcare policy jargon and keep it high level.
Also, know the committees the legislator serves on and their political party to tailor your talking points. For example, do not speak poorly of the Affordable Care Act when speaking to a Democratic Congressman; conversely, be careful of bringing up Medicaid expansion to a Texas Republican.

Follow up
Send a hand written note or an email to the legislator at their office thanking them for their time. You can also invite them on a home visit. We recommend you keep in touch with their office every few months by attending a town hall, writing a letter, helping their campaign, or inviting them to your office/on a home visit/to a pro-home care event.

Please remember to tell TAHC&H about your visit here or by emailing governmentaffairs@tahch.org! It is very important the association knows about relationships between legislators and their constituent members of TAHC&H.

• Where you live, where you work, and what services you provide.
  
• How many clients you serve in their district. The more specific you can be about the number of people you serve and where, the better.
  
• How many people your agency employs in their district. This helps to detail your agency's economic footprint in their district.
  
• Ask how much they already know about home care or hospice.  Many legislators know little but some may have personal or professional experiences to inform them.
  
• Describe your typical patient or client.
  
• Mention that the types of home care services provided under Medicaid versus Medicare are different (hospice being the exception). Regardless of the payment source for your clients, home care and hospice improves the quality of life of patients by retaining them in a lower-cost setting with the people and things they love.
  
• Home care has the potential to save the state and federal government money by reducing re-admissions, especially for chronically-ill patients, and assisting in care coordination.
  
• Talk about what you know. Discuss the potential impact of rules and legislation on the people you serve.
  
• Share success stories to illustrate the value of home care and hospice.

TAHC&H has various advocacy events throughout the year for members. Events to look out for are Lobby Days at our Texas and US Capitols, quarterly Government Affairs Committee meetings (open to all TAHC&H members), hearings for stakeholder testimony, and advocacy trainings throughout Texas!

Previous events

Sen. Royce West visits the Advocacy Summit in Dallas (January 2016).

Rep. Sylvester Turner speaks out against rate cuts to Medicaid pediatric therapy at the Texas Capitol (April 2015).

TAHC&H members at an educational barbecue in Washington, DC (March 2015).

Now that you understand the issues, know your legislator, are you ready to write a letter or social media post promoting a TAHC&H policy priority? Great! Use the below guide to be sure you are using the proper format. Remember to contact the official office for legislative and policy comments.