• Monitor quality improvement issues as they relate to Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; monitor health care reform legislation as it relates to quality improvement issues; HR 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 and Senate HELP Committee's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009; monitor issues in Congress as they relate to quality improvement in health care.

Duration: January 1, 2008 to March 31, 2010

General Issues: Budget/Appropriations, Health Issues, Defense, Veterans

Spending: about $240,000 (But it's complicated. Here's why.)

It can be tricky to figure out how much an organization spent on a particular lobbying engagement. The law only requires lobbyists to report the amount they were paid for federal lobbying each quarter rounded to the nearest $10,000—and if it's less than $3,000 in a given quarter (or less than $13,000 for organizations with in-house lobbyists), they don't have to disclose it at all. Plus, some organizations include spending that doesn’t belong in the report—for instance, money spent lobbying state governments or other legal work.

Agencies lobbied since 2008: House of Representatives, U.S. Senate