This is so relevant to the days discussion of fiscal responsibility and HealthCare but in the United States of America the more powerful your lobby the louder your voice. You may have the best solution to Healthcare but without the lobby your voice is a whisper. Home medical equipment and HomeCare is already the most cost-effective, slowest-growing portion of Medicare spending, increasing only 0.75 percent per year according to the most recent National Health Expenditures data. That compares to more than 6 percent annual growth for Medicare spending overall. Home medical equipment represents only 1.6 percent of the Medicare budget. However, CMS "Medicare" continues to release stories of Medicare Fraud in the Home Health and Home Medical Equipment Industries. However the CBO or Congressional Budget office says Medicare spending could be cut by 30% by using more conservative approaches to patients with Chronic Diseases. It only makes sense. Hospitals save lives but there is a continuum of care that produces the best outcomes and the lowest costs. All areas of our Health system are equally important. A visit to the Hospital for a one day stay for a COPD respiratory episode runs $5500.00 dollars. If treated and managed in the home, it is only seven dollars a day. Home Care can provide almost all treatments that facilities can without the cost and risk of infection. Hospitals are also under pressure from Medicare and Insurance companies to prevent a patient from being admitted into the hospital more than once in a thirty day period for the same diagnosis. Home Care is an important piece of the continuum of care because chronically ill patients are treated in the home while drastically reducing recurring admissions to the hospital.

CMS currently is implementing "Competitive Bidding". Law makers are very skillful in naming bills and laws. The process is not Competitive at all. It allows National providers to low bid services while running out local Home Medical Operators. HME insiders estimate that this process will cost an estimated 1 million jobs while presenting little savings to taxpayers.

Take a look at the pictures from Friday evening.

Remember to tag the photos with the names of people in the picture. This is a new feature on ETT. Now your friends will be able to find your pictures on the internet. click here to learn how to tag photos

This car show was the "brain child" of Bo Ellis. He has worked hard to make it a success. His hard work is showing results. This is the third month for the show and each month the show gets bigger.

Take a look at the photos from this month's event.

Remember to tag the photos with the names of people in the picture. This is a new feature on ETT. Now your friends will be able to find your pictures on the internet. click here to learn how to tag photos

It's easy -- just tag your pictures and you will always be able to find them in the galleries and share them with friends.

We recently implemented photo tagging.

Many people are now tagging their photos but we want even more people to tag photos. This adds interest to our photo galleries and ensures that you will always be able to find your pictures.

Click below to see an example of a gallery that has been tagged. Then start tagging your pictures. Remember you can tag old galleries as well as the current galleries -- just locate them in the Article Archive and start tagging.