Help a Survivor Recover to their Fullest Potential

An email from the National Stroke Association.
If they really wanted to help survivors they would put all their resources into finding out a way to stop the neuronal cascade of death. That would be preventative and useful, this is reactive and considering the current state of rehab knowledge fairly useless.

Dear dean,

Right now, Congress is deciding whether to limit the amount of outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy services available under Medicare. You can help prevent this harmful policy change by contacting your members of Congress and telling them how critical therapy services are to a stroke survivor’s recovery. Help us prevent this harmful policy from becoming reality.

The irony of what Congress is debating is that it’ll impede the recovery of the most severely impacted stroke survivors. Medicare currently limits, or caps, outpatient therapy services on an annual basis. If a stroke survivor needs more therapy than the program caps allow, he or she can apply for additional services using an “exceptions process.” However, that process expires at the end of this year, on Dec. 31, 2012. Thus, if Congress doesn’t act to continue the exceptions process, those stroke survivors who need the most therapy to recover won’t have access to it unless they pay for the therapy out-of-pocket.

Informing your members of Congress about the realities of life after stroke and the importance of outpatient therapy services can influence the way they vote on this issue. It only takes a minute to help the entire stroke community. Take action today!

Sincerely,

Coral Cosway
Director, Policy Advocacy