AHDI, MTIA Credit Member Advocacy For Withdrawal Of Foxx Amendment To H.R. 3854
A blog post last week by Lea Sims, Director of Professional Programs for the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), credits advocacy efforts by members of AHDI and the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) in persuading Rep. Virginia Foxx to withdraw her amendment to House Resolution 3854:
"Last week, AHDI and MTIA members proved yet again that grassroots
membership involvement is key to the success of our advocacy efforts.
Members’ calls, emails, and faxes to their Representatives helped
defeat an amendment that would have eliminated from the Small Business
Financing and Investment Act of 2009 (H.R. 3854) loans for which our
members would be eligible and could use to purchase health information
technologies. The amendment was withdrawn, and the bill passed in the
House of Representatives and now moves to the Senate. This success
demonstrated not only the value of membership participation in
advocacy, but also the value of working with the Dewey Square Group
(DSG). DSG alerted us to the amendment, helped us craft our official
statement to legislators, and coordinated delivery of that statement to
every member of the House of Representatives."
For some insight into the federal legislative process, the official transcript of Rep. Foxx's withdrawal of her amendment can be found here.