The Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act (H.R. 4993) was reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 13 by Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-PA). The Home Health Planning and Improvement Act would allow physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists and certified nurse midwives to order home health services under Medicare in accordance with state law.
ANA recently submitted comments urging CMS, Congress, and the Administration to allow APRNs – and all healthcare providers – to qualify for a portion of the billions of dollars in incentives for adopting health information technology/electronic health records systems under the federal Medicare/Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program.
Prior to the January 19th special Senate election in Massachusetts and resultant tip of power in Congress, this column was to have been devoted to a discussion of the potential impact of federal health care reform on states and ultimately nursing’s agenda. It now seems the outcome of reform is even more elusive. But there are some assumptions that can be made with regard to state legislation during the 2010 sessions based upon state budget deficits.
