CRT Stakeholders and Friends, Thanks to those who have been actively reaching out to their members in the House of Representatives to get them to sign on to the bipartisan Complex Wheelchair letter to CMS. The letter sends a critical message to CMS to stop the application of Competitive Bid pricing to Complex Rehab wheelchair accessories in 2016 and prevent major access problems for people with disabilities. Unfortunately and understandably, with multiple major Congressional votes taking place this week getting the time and attention of Representatives has been a challenge. But we have very good news! Given the seriousness of this issue and the need to allow adequate time for House offices to sign on to the letter, the six House authors are extending the deadline for additional signatures to 5:00 PM on April 15th. Since Congress will be in recess for the next two weeks (returning April 13th) this will provide CRT stakeholders additional time to follow up with their Representatives to educate them on the issue and get them to add their signatures. The House authors will be resending the sign-on request to their colleagues today announcing the extension. We want to take advantage of this deadline extension! To build on the outreach and progress of this week, it is critical that CRT stakeholders make use of the additional time and continue to follow up with their Representatives, particularly over the next week. Your personal outreach will pay off...we have seen absolute proof of that in the past 2 days! But it does take that follow up call. As an update, as of yesterday we have 27 signatures (see the list below). We obviously want many more, but again this has been an extremely challenging week for Congressional staff and the reality is many offices may not have even had time to discuss your email until today. That's why the extension is so helpful. The big news is there have been over 3,000 emails sent to Congress in the past 3 days that are ready for follow up! If your Representative is not on the list below, please take the time to call their office. You can get the phone number and suggested talking points at http://cqrcengage.com/access2crt/CBpricing. This site also has related documents (House letter, Position Paper, Call To Action) that can be reviewed and shared. Representatives will only sign on if they hear this is an important issue to YOU, their constituent. Thanks for making this a priority and finding 10 minutes in your busy schedule. Your personal outreach can get that signature! Don Donald E. Clayback Executive Director | NCART Office 716-839-9728 | Cell 716-913-4754 [email protected] | www.ncart.us House CRT Letter Signatures at 3-26-15 (By State) 1 CA R Nunes Devin 2 CA D Thompson Mike 3 CO D DeGette Diana 4 CT D Larson John 5 FL D Grayson Alan 6 IA D Loebsack Dave 7 IL R Bost Mike 8 IL R Davis Rodney 9 KS R Yoder Kevin 10 MD D Ruppersberger Dutch 11 MO R Luetkemeyer Blaine 12 NY D Crowley Joe 13 NY R Hanna Richard 14 NY D Higgins Brian 15 NY D Tonko Paul 16 OH D Beatty Joyce 17 OH R Johnson Bill 18 OH R Joyce David 19 OH R Tiberi Pat 20 PA R Kelly Mike 21 PA R Murphy Tim 22 PA R Thompson GT 23 RI D Langevin Jim 24 TN R Blackburn Marsha 25 TN R DesJarlais Scott 26 WI R Kind Ron 27 WI R Sensennbrenner Jim