Bring the Vote Home Aims to Help Millions of U.S. Seniors Exercise Their Right to Vote This November

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bring the Vote Home - a nationwide initiative to help senior, disabled and homebound Americans and their clinicians cast their votes this election year – is serving approximately 3.5 Medicare home health beneficiaries and 500,000 skilled home health clinicians across the country.

Bring the Vote Home is a collective effort by state home healthcare associations and home health providers serving communities nationwide to engage the nation's 12 million home healthcare patients and their clinicians via voter and absentee ballot registration initiatives. Millions of seniors and disabled Americans receive skilled home healthcare services to meet their clinical needs. Because Medicare beneficiaries must be homebound to be eligible for Medicare's home healthcare benefit, they are often unable to travel to their local polling location. 

Recognizing that many of their patients were unable to participate in the election process, the home health community launched Bring the Vote Home to ensure homebound seniors have an opportunity to cast a vote this November.  Further, the campaign also seeks to engage clinicians and other members of the home health community who are not registered to vote by offering online tools and educational materials with detailed information on how to officially register to take part in the voting process.

As part of the initiative, the home healthcare community is offering state-by-state registration information and absentee ballot registration through an online tool, www.bringthevotehome.org.  Home healthcare clinicians are also directly assisting patients and their families during the registration process while in the home to provide care.  Further, the Bring the Vote Home website offers lawmakers and candidates a platform to provide their policy positions on issues impacting the home healthcare community and the Medicare program.

"Our goal is to facilitate the process of registering to vote or obtaining an absentee ballot for the seniors we serve and the clinicians that provide that care," said Marcia Tetterton, Chair of the Council for State Home Care Associations. "Our nation's seniors are concerned about a variety if issues, particularly those related to the Medicare program and their home health benefit.  We are so proud to be part of Bring the Vote Home to enable more seniors to participate in this year's important elections."

Bring the Vote Home is a nationwide citizenship project coordinated by the Council for State Home Care Associations, the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare, and other home health community members to help America's approximately 12 million home healthcare patients, including 3.5 Medicare beneficiaries, and skilled healthcare professionals exercise their right to vote in national and state elections this November.  To learn more, visit www.bringthevotehome.org.

SOURCE Bring the Vote Home