advocate

Advocacy
Name
Institution Affiliation
Advocacy to legislative bills are the actions taken to impact developments of new bills or modifications to existing legislation. It seeks to safeguard the views, wishes, and rights of the most vulnerable in the society. The various types and levels of advocacy include client, professional and organization advocacy.
What level of Advocacy would you use?
Professional advocacy shall be applied to influence parts of the Medicare civil and criminal penalties update act. It would involve combining forces with other advocates who have similar concerns on the bill and raising these views as one. A representative would be selected to share the views with the legislator or his assistant.
How would you advocate?
Advocacy would be achieved by seeking the opinions and views of various professionals in the region who had similar concerns and support for the bill. The professionals would deliberate, come to a consensus and seek an audience with the legislator to have their voices heard. The professionals would try to reach the legislator through writing a letter airing detailing why they support the bill and attach any documents to that effect.
What legislation/bill is relevant to this topic?
This paper purports to look at advocacy attempts by various advocates to influence the “H.R.3245 Medicare Civil and Criminal Penalties Update Act” a bill introduced to increase the civil and criminal penalties and sentences for those violating the social security act (Bilirakis, 2017).

Who would you write a letter to, if writing a letter?
The advocates can through a phone call, a letter or face to face meetings contact the legislator or his assistant in order to share their views regarding the introduced bill. It may not be easy reaching the legislator on phone hence a letter would be a better attempt at making contact. The letter would be addressed to the legislator or his assistant, and in this case, the letter would be addressed to the legislator for Florida and who also introduced the bill Rep.Gus Bilirakis of address 2112 Rayburn House Building. The letter should clearly explain the purpose, provide a summary of the issues on the bill and finally mention the advocates’ position on the impact of the bill.
A face to face meeting will have the most impact, with the advocacy attempts. The advocate will perform background research on the legislator with emphasis on his/her voting patterns on the issue in the past. The advocate will have to be punctual and dress professionally. He/she will have to be organized and prioritize on the major issues considering the limited time and ensure that they deliver their target message (Bilirakis, 2017). The advocate should receive and answer questions to the best of their knowledge. More so, the advocate can share a patient/client story that relates to the issues of the bill and seeks to obtain a timeline on when the legislator can respond to the views raised. Finally, the advocate will follow up through an appreciation letter highlighting the issues raised in the meeting and provide any requested information or materials.
Where is the bill in the legislative process?
The “H.R.3245 Medicare Civil and Criminal Penalties Update Act” is still pending and was lastly read out by the subcommittee on energy and commerce. The advocacy attempts will help the legislator get a better or different perspective on the bill as he seeks to have it signed into law.
References
Medicare Civil and Criminal Penalties Update Act. Congress.gov. Text – H.R.3245 – 115th Congress (2017-2018): (Bilirakis, G. 2017).