Steve Flowers, a member of the Alabama Legislature for sixteen years, is a widely syndicated political columnist, author, and prognosticator. The last time I spoke with him was on the occasion of an event honoring my long-time State Senator Jabo Wagoner, a friend of our industry. I was the guest of John Beard, then a senior office of Alacare, the state’s largest home health agency and hospice.

More recently, I’ve been following his editorials in an online publication, Alabama Political Reporter. Steve has written a lot recently about the status of the Alabama Congressional Delegation, much of which addresses topics that are—or should be—of great interest to Alabama HME Providers.

His latest column begins, “Over the years, I have discussed my observations and concepts of the two different roles or routes taken by a U.S. senator or congressman during their tenure in Washington. One clearly chooses one of two postures in their representation of you in Washington. Our delegates in D.C. are either benefactors or ideologues.

The role of benefactor is much better for any state, especially Alabama.”

Read the article here, then return to these comments on how this affects us.

Without regard to our personal opinions, those who represent ADMEA  to our delegation must avoid any risk of angering a member by disagreeing with either their philosophy or their positions on issues other than ours. Sometimes that is harder to do than other occasions, but we have managed to do that for more than 45 years, establishing good relationships with members and staff through many changes.

Until several more of the Biden appointees are confirmed, and in many case, only after they have assumed their new positions and completed staff changes in the bureaucracy can we approach them with the expectation of getting a fair hearing on our issues. The AAHomecare staff is experienced in doing that, and they know and have worked with many who were part of the Obama administration. No one anticipates any difficulty in maintaining our progress, as our issues are bipartisan.

Now that the impeachment trial is behind us and a covid relief package close to being completed, it won’t be too long until we can begin to campaign on both legislative and regulatory fronts to advance our recent gains. Meanwhile, please be patient, not like this: