For the last four decades, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) has been the leading and unifying voice for patients who want quality care in the home and the providers who make that care possible. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), a long-time friend of home care and hospice, has entered a formal statement in the Senate record thanking NAHC for its years of advocacy.
Madam President, I rise today to celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of the leading voices in healthcare, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice. Established on April 2, 1982, from three separate organizations, for four decades, it has been a voice for the essential and dedicated organizations that provide healthcare services to over 12 million patients annually in their own homes.
NAHC has provided valuable and trusted information that has helped guide Congress, the administration, Federal agencies, and many other health policy planners as we support the ability of patients to receive high quality healthcare at home.
From the beginning, NAHC has recognized that complex health policy issues require a unified voice. NAHC has brought together providers representing a wide range of home services including home health, hospice care, home and community-based services, home infusion therapy, private duty nursing for pediatric and adult patients, personal care services, home-based palliative care, and more. These providers are big and small, freestanding and part of larger institutions, nonprofit and commercial, rural and urban.
Healthcare continues to shift to care provided in the home–and with good reason. Providing expanded, holistic care in one’s own home when clinically appropriate can improve the lives of patients while increasing quality and efficiency.
I pay tribute today to NAHC’s decades of work to expand access to healthcare at home, and I look forward to partnering with NAHC members and staff for many more years to come.
“It is very kind of Senator Stabenow to join in the celebration of NAHC’s 40th anniversary with all the other important issues that she is addressing in the Senate at this time,” said NAHC President William A. Dombi. “Home care and hospice is fortunate to have the strong and enduring support of many members of Congress through its four decades of advocacy. Senator Stabenow’s message resonates throughout Congress.
“The last four decades has seen a tremendous growth in care in the home and NAHC has been at the center of every fight to expand access to home care and hospice. That’s exactly what NAHC will be doing for the next 40 years and however long it takes to give America the quality care in the home that it needs and deserves.”