Senator Collins Honored by National Association for the Support of Long Term Care

Washington, D.C. - The National Association for the Support of Long Term Care (NASL) honored U.S. Senator Susan Collins today with the NASL Award. The organization recognized Senator Collins for her leadership on issues important to seniors, including introducing bipartisan legislation to repeal arbitrary Medicare therapy caps as well as to fix the 3-day hospital stay rule.

“I am honored to receive this recognition for my efforts to improve care and lower costs for seniors,” said Senator Collins. “As the Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, I look forward to continuing to protect seniors from undue out-of-pocket costs and ensure that they get the health care that they need.”

In February 2017, Senator Collins joined a bipartisan group of Senators in reintroducing the bipartisan Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Services Act, which would protect Medicare beneficiaries from arbitrary limits on outpatient physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology services that are often needed to recover from debilitating illnesses, such as stroke, or support the effective management of conditions including multiple sclerosis and arthritis.

In addition, in March 2017, Senator Collins reintroduced the Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act with a bipartisan group of colleagues. The bill would protect seniors from high medical costs by allowing the time patients spend in the hospital under “observation status” to count toward the requisite three-day hospital stay for coverage of skilled nursing care.

The NASL represents ancillary service providers and suppliers in the long term and post acute care community and advocates for high-quality, cost-effective care.