Welcome. Thank you for taking the time today to participate in how to host a congressional visit on your TURF education. My name is Heather Clinton, and I am the chief financial officer at Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center in Manhattan, Kansas. The objectives for this PowerPoint today are why, and I will be providing three reasons why you should be hosting a visit at your practice with your congressional leadership and how. I'm going to provide eight considerations to how you can host an efficient and impactful visit with your legislators. Why should you host a visit at your practice? The top three reasons you should be hosting a visit would be to provide an effective way to engage with lawmakers, whether that's through bi-directional engagement or just an increased visibility in your area. Two, to be able to advocate for health care issues that are important to your practice, such as site neutrality if that's important to you, Medicare Advantage plans and the burden that it has created on an administrative side, and three, to showcase your facility. Understand that advocacy does not have to be intimidating or overly complicated. When a lawmaker is coming to your practice, he or she is now able to show their engagement with their district constituents. An on-site visit is more powerful and impactful than going to see them on their TURF, and he or she is now readily accessible and able to be seen in the field. Eight ways to host an efficient and an impactful congressional visit. You want to clearly define your objectives. You want to address busy schedules, contact the congressional offices in your area, prepare essential materials, plan a targeted itinerary, engage key stakeholders, anticipate key questions, and strategically follow up. When you clearly define your objectives, you need to identify the objectives and goals for the meeting. Make sure that your objectives are clear and concise and keep your goals streamlined to maximize the impact. Pro tip, make sure your objectives are showcasing the everyday work of your team, specifically when advocating for your practice pain points, as that could be very impactful for lawmakers. Make sure to emphasize building relationships with the lawmakers as well. Address busy schedules. Everyone is busy, so we want to make sure that we acknowledge the busy schedules of our congressional leaders. Propose a brief yet meaningful visit. Pro tip, emphasize the importance of the efficiency in the discussions while making sure to remain flexible for any impromptu schedule changes. Contact congressional offices. Be sure to research and reach out to the relevant lawmakers in your area. During the initial contact, make sure that you are emphasizing the streamlined nature of the visit, articulate the opportunity for a focused and informal meeting, and convey the opportunity to build a relationship with the constituents. Pro tip, emphasize this meeting is focused and informal and that there is a specific agenda. Again, we want to be respectful of our congressional leader's time. And make sure that congressional leadership understands the intent of the meeting that you have previously identified. Prepare essential materials. You're going to want to compile all pertinent information about your practice, advocacy goals, and specific legislative healthcare concerns. Create a document that effectively communicates the real-world impact of the legislative decisions related to your practice. Pro tip, your essential materials do not necessarily need to be in a Word document form. Any media format that you have streamlined to effectively articulate the pertinent information in a memorable manner from this meeting that the congressional leader can take away is going to be ideal. Plan a targeted itinerary. Make sure you do develop a focused itinerary. Key elements I would recommend would be a facility tour, brief interactions with various healthcare professionals at your practice. And then you can add a personalized discussion with a Medicare Advantage patient on their access to care due to the administrative burdens that Medicare Advantage has put on your office. Pro tip, make sure you are building in the moments for lawmakers to witness the unfiltered everyday realities of your team's hard work. Engage key stakeholders. Involve key stakeholders in a targeted manner. Encourage the stakeholders to share concise experiences that highlight legislative impact. Pro tip, your congressional representative may be familiar with certain healthcare issues. However, it is imperative to hear from the constituents about the real-world impact of the issues such as Medicare cuts and, again, the overburdens and administrative processes that face us all. Make sure that you are sharing specific examples, highlighting the impact on your staff and your patients. This helps the lawmakers better understand the importance of their decisions and the need for effective streamlined healthcare policies. Anticipate key questions. Anticipate key questions that may arise from the visit and the materials that you have created and presented. Be ready to respond in a clear, concise, impactful manner. Do not overthink your responses. And remember, less is more. Pro tip, prepare responses to the questions that impact relationship building, advocacy issues presented, and team observations. Strategically follow up. I think this is the most important piece of your meeting. You want to make sure when you follow up that you are expressing gratitude. Reiterate the key points of the meeting and the discussion. Emphasize the ongoing importance of their support. The biggest pro tip I have for you is to remain engaged with your area lawmakers and their staff over time. Consider sending regular updates on healthcare news and developments. Invite them to events or meetings related to healthcare policy. And in addition, just generally stay in touch with your congressional leaders. By following up strategically, you can help ensure the impact of the congressional site visit is maximized and that your message on healthcare policy resonates with lawmakers over the long term.

Heather Clinton

CFO

medical center

congressional visit

healthcare advocacy