The following key stakeholders and legislators were contacted and formally invited to view our blog.
Bob Goodlatte serves the sixth Congressional District of Virginia, a very diverse and wide-spreading region. His knowledge of the bill could gain additional support from his constituents in Virginia. Goodlatte serves as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and his goals are to decrease health care costs and controlling government spending. The Home Health Planning and Improvement Act will help manage costs to federal health care programs so it is important to bring awareness of the bill to Congressman Goodlatte.
Steve Austria serves the seventh Congressional District of Ohio. His interests are focused more on military involvement, and our goal was to increase awareness to a more diverse population base. As someone who is not directly affected by the bill, Steve Austria is a representative of a population of people who need to be informed about this vital legislation.
Hilda Taylor is a nursing professor at James Madison University, and a Clinical Nurse Specialist. Because of her Advanced Practice Nurse specialization we identified her as a key stakeholder in the passage of this bill. It is important to hear the perspective of APRNs on this bill, as it directly affects their career.
Updates for the bill:
--The latest action of this bill was that it was read twice in the Senate, January 31, 2011
--It is currently still in the Senate Finance Committee
We agree that the utilization of all qualified health care providers would greatly increase access to care. It is really unfortunate that these APRNs are providing primary care for these patients, but yet, they are not allowed to order home health services under Medicare. It is only wasting more of our valuable resources and inconveniencing the patients and providers by requiring the patients to see a physician for home health services. As the population of elderly individuals continues to rise along with the need for health care services APRNs are going to need to be used to their full potential. It seems that if this bill was passed it would only be beneficial and it would be interesting to hear an opposing argument.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your support, we agree that this bill will be beneficial. You can see some of the concerns of opposers in our past blogs.
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