Reverse Fly-in
During a congressional recess, consider hosting a Reverse Fly-In. These tours are a crucial part of our advocacy efforts, because the more we engage members of Congress, the more successful we will be in advancing the Medicare Audiologist Access and Services Act.
The visits provide audiologists the opportunity to show our elected officials first-hand, our commitment to the patient population we serve, as well as to demonstrate the variety of diagnostic and treatment services we provide to their constituents in the community. The staff and our partners at our practices can also benefit from interacting with Members of Congress and their staff.
In addition, tours allow lawmakers to hear directly from our patients about how important it is for them to have access to treatment for hearing and balance disorders. By showing legislators how our patients benefit from quality care that we provide, we are better able to demonstrate why the Medicare program needs to be updated to give Medicare patients greater access to care and choice of provider in treating their hearing and balance disorders. Tours can provide great value in opening up a direct conversation with lawmakers about the shortcomings of the Medicare program, the unnecessary burdens it places on seniors who are seeking Audiologic Care, and the need to enact the Medicare Audiologist Access and Services Act.
See below for resources for a reverse fly-in at your office. If you require assistance setting up a meeting with your legislator, contact
- Issue Summary, outlining the issue, with references on the back
- Audiology Fast Facts
- Talking Points
- Invite Letter
- Run of Show Template
- Thank You Letter Template
- Media AdvisoryTemplate
- Letter to the Editor Template
Practice Tour/Reverse Fly-In
ADA Member meetings and audiology practice tours with Representative, Senators, and candidates for federal office are an essential element of our advocacy efforts. The more we engage members of Congress, the more successful we will be in advancing the Medicare Audiologist Access and Services Act. The visits provide ADA Members the opportunity to show our elected officials, first-hand, our commitment to the patient population we serve, as well as to demonstrate the variety of diagnostic and treatment services we provide to their constituents in the community. The staff and our partners at our practices can also benefit from interacting with Members of Congress and their staff.
In addition, tours allow lawmakers to hear directly from our patients about how important it is for them to have access to treatment for hearing and balance disorders. By showing legislators how our patients benefit from quality care that we provide, we are better able to demonstrate why the Medicare program needs to be updated to give Medicare patients greater access to care and choice of provider in treating their hearing and balance disorders. Tours can provide great value in opening up a direct conversation with lawmakers about the shortcomings of the Medicare program, the unnecessary burdens it places on seniors who are seeking Audiologic Care, and the need to enact the Medicare Audiologist Access and Services Act.
Additional value of facility tours includes opportunities to:
- Create and strengthen relationships with lawmakers and local media;
- Demonstrate the important services audiologists provide for their patients;
- Allow legislators to speak with our patients directly as they are being cared for; and
- Allow legislators to speak with designated staff and about the services we provide and the importance of updating archaic supervisory and referral requirements in the Medicare program.
Call to Action
ADA is asking all ADA Members to request a meeting with their legislators as soon as possible to allow the Member of Congress sufficient time to work with you to find a date and time that will work for a visit. Legislators welcome any opportunity to meet with their constituents in district and tour a practice.
How to Schedule a Visit
The following steps outline the process ADA encourages when arranging facility tours. Where noted, links to templates/samples of process components are embedded within the following sections of this toolkit.
STEP 1: IDENTIFY YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATORS
ADA Members can identify your U.S. Representative using your zip code. In some instances, there is more than one Representative within the same five digit zip code. To determine which Representative represents your practice you can determine that with either your nine digit zip code or your street address.
ADA Members can view a listing of U.S. Senators by state.
STEP 2: INITIAL CONTACT
ADA Members can use the Template Invite Letter to Elected Officials. ADA encourages you to customize the letter to your individual practice location or locations and the Member of Congress. The more details you can include about your practice (number of patients served, number of staff employed, number of locations you have, etc.) the better received your letter will be.
- Provide the Member of Congress multiple options for dates when they can tour your practice.
- The first date should be about 2 weeks from the date of your invitation.
- ADA recommends you send the letter via email to the scheduler directly. A list of scheduler’s for every Member of Congress is available here.
- For additional information on the protocol for addressing Members of Congress, please click here.
STEP 3: INVITATION FOLLOW-UP
Follow-up is just as important as the initial outreach. It is important to ensure lawmakers and candidates have received your invitation, and following up helps your practice tour request stand out from the multitude of other invitations and communications they receive.
- One week after the invitation is sent to the scheduler, you should follow up by calling the office of the Member of Congress to inquire about the status of the request.
- Only resend your written invitation if asked to do so by the staff for the Member of Congress.
STEP 4: TOUR PLANNING/EXECUTION
Once interest in visiting your practice is confirmed, we recommend the following steps for planning the tour.
- Identify any staff or partner participants for the tour/meeting with the Member of Congress and extend additional invitations to them.
- Health care providers who partner with your practice;
- Patients
- Community leaders or other interested parties.
- You will want to prepare/print materials to be given to the Member of Congress about your practice and our issues. You can view the documents about audiology and Medicare Audiologist Access and Services Act.
- You will want to consider whether you would like to serve any snacks or refreshments during the facility tour.
- You will want to confirm with the scheduler for the Member of Congress the date and time of the visit and that the office has all of the details they will need (for example, where to park).
- Develop a detailed agenda or “run of show” for the visit. You can download show template document here.
- Assign a member of your staff to take photos of the visit to share with ADA and the staff for the Member of Congress.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE EVENT
Thank the Member of Congress for making the visit to your facility. Download a template letter thanking them for their time and reiterating some of the issues you discussed about the Medicare Audiologist Access and Services Act during the visit.
OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES
If your organization is comfortable engaging the media around this visit, we would recommend the following activities.
- Ask the scheduler to put you in touch with the Press Secretary or Communications Director for the Member of Congress to coordinate on a media advisory about the visit. Download a template media advisory about the visit.
- Publicly thank the Member of Congress for making the visit by submitting a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Download a template letter to the editor.