ANA’s PAC and complementary political education program are key to ANA’s legislative success in the U.S. Congress and a strong part of ANA’s overall success. ANA-PAC builds relation¬ships and provides bipartisan support for pro-nursing Members of Congress. In addition to increasing nursing’s visibility in the political arena, ANA-PAC demonstrates to policymakers that we are se¬rious about our issues.
ANA held a Congressional briefing on September 27 on Capitol Hill, urging lawmakers to support the bipartisan “Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act of 2011” (H.R. 2267/ S.227). The legislation would remove a federal barrier to practice in Medicare by ensuring that APRNs and PAs can sign home health plans – current law puts an undue burden on the patient, leading to delays in home health services and increased costs for patients. During the briefing ANA also highlighted compelling results from a new study that found implementation of the law will lead to a cost savings of $309 million over ten years for Medicare.
On Wednesday, September 28th over one thousand nurses from all across the country took part in ANA’s first ever Home Health Virtual Lobby Day. Hundreds of emails, letters and phone calls were made to members of Congress by their nurse constituents urging them to support legislation that will remove a barrier to practice in Medicare by ensuring APRNs can sign home health plans of care. The feedback has been positive and already we’re starting to see results as members of Congress continue to sign on as co-sponsors to this important legislation.
ANA submitted formal comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) responding to proposed rules that directly impact the practice of nursing, especially in home health care and hospital outpatient services. Even nurses who don’t work in these areas may have patients or know someone affected by these policies. Final rules responding to our comments are due out later this year. These, and other ANA regulatory comments, are available on Nursing World, at http://www.nursingworld.org/comments.
On June 21, 2011, Representatives Greg Walden (R-OR) and Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) reintroduced the “Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act of 2011” (H.R. 2267). This bipartisan legislation would allow advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) – nurse practitioners (NPs), clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), certified nurse midwives (CNMs), physician assistants (PAs) – to order home health services and meet the face-to-face requirement under Medicare in accordance with state law.
We recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which became law on March 23, 2010. Although the Act is very long and complex, like many federal laws, the details are left up to federal agencies and departments – as well as the States – which must issue rules and other decisions to actually carry out its policies and create its programs. In addition, many ACA provisions build upon, change, or add to federal programs that are already in existence — especially Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program). Here is an update on what has been happening in federal agencies and departments, in recent actions to carry out the goals and provisions of ACA. To view ANA comments on these and other regulatory issues, please visit our website at http://www.nursingworld.org/comments.
