Federal Budget Battles Begin – Health Professions Education at Stake

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

I’m subscribed to many listservs, mailing lists, and eNews alerts that help me keep track of news that may be important to nurses. One e-mail list I’m on is the Health Professions and Nursing Education Coalition (HPNEC), from the Association of American Medical Colleges. It closely monitors funding for health professions education.

Last week, the e-mail reported on the proposed 2012 federal budget—that is, the initial draft proposed by the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education departments appropriations subcommittee. Among a great deal else, this includes funding for  Medicare, the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, and medical and nursing education (Title VII and Title VIII funding).

There’s already contention over the proposal, with the Democrats claiming they had nothing to do with it. According to ranking Democratic member Rep. Norm Dick, quoted in the minority party press release: “Make no mistake: this is not a committee product. This draft bill represents the ideological position of one committee member—the subcommittee chairman.”

Among other aspects, the proposal includes cuts to all monies to Planned Parenthood (as long as it continues to provide abortion services), National Public Radio, and any programs under the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

According to the HPNEC e-mail: “The bill offers a total of $87.5 million for Title VII programs, a $185 million (67.9 percent) cut, by eliminating funding for the Title VII Health Careers Opportunity Program, scholarships for disadvantaged students, primary care medicine, Area […]

2016-11-21T13:11:49-05:00October 3rd, 2011|health care policy, nursing perspective, students|1 Comment
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Webnotes: Nurse Comics, Uninsurance, Hospital Image vs. Reality, Social Media Guidance

2016-04-18T15:08:14-04:00September 15th, 2011|health care policy, healthcare social media, nursing perspective|3 Comments
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Health Care Reform Works—If You Work It

Medical Bills

By Gail M. Pfeifer, MA, RN, AJN news director

My husband and I both recently had preventive screening colonoscopies, which are now covered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as preventive care for adults over 50. That coverage, if you purchased a new health insurance plan on or after September 23, 2010, which we did, means you do not have to pay a copayment or coinsurance or meet a deductible if you use an in-network provider (here’s a full list of preventive services covered under the new law). You would think that medical office billers and insurance companies would know that by now.

Although some plans have clauses that let them off the hook on this rule, ours does not—these tests should have been covered. Lucky for us, we knew it when the bills came in. To make a long story short, I was billed for the “surgery” and for the anesthesia. So I first called the billing department of the GI specialist’s office and asked them to rebill the procedure correctly, as preventive screening. No further bills from them, for me, but shortly afterward, my husband was billed by the same office for “surgery” occurring months later—same doc, same procedure, same billing office. He’s following up with phone calls as I write.

I next called the anesthesia billing office, which said our insurance company had denied the claim. I called the insurance company, which looked at our plan […]

2016-11-21T13:13:25-05:00April 22nd, 2011|health care policy, nursing perspective, patient engagement|2 Comments
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Same Boat, Different Ocean

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Since the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing report was released six months ago, we’ve heard a lot about how nurses need to have more representation on boards of health care institutions and be more active participants in decisions about redesigning health care delivery systems. (See our online resource page for a variety of information about the report.)

To me, it’s a recommendation that’s so intuitive and simple that it’s almost embarrassing—and the need for it only drives home how absurd our health care system can be. It’s mind-boggling to me that organizations feel they can plan effective health care without the input of nurses. Imagine aircraft manufacturers designing a plane without input from the primary group—pilots—who will be responsible for flying it safely.

I suppose many health care entities and boards  feel that they have this input from physicians—but really, in most hospitals physicians aren’t involved in the nitty-gritty operations details that either make or break workflow processes or can impede the delivery of safe, cost-effective care.  How many times have hospitals planned patient care units or purchased equipment without nursing, input only to find that the systems aren’t workable or create more work? […]

2016-11-21T13:13:34-05:00April 12th, 2011|health care policy, nursing perspective|12 Comments
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HCR: Been There, Done That

By Maureen ‘Shawn’ Kennedy, AJN editor in chief

I was doing some research in the AJN archives and came across an editorial written in November 1993 by Virginia Trotter Betts, then-president of the American Nurses Association. “The Best Buy in Health Care” (click through to the PDF option; article will be free until July 18) reads like it was written with the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report in mind. Here’s an excerpt for those who don’t have access to the AJN archives (a shameless plug: subscribers have full access to ALL the issues of AJN, back to the very first issue in 1900—a treasure trove of nursing history):

“But we must also face the fact that such reform will require significant changes in nursing. Nurses will have to operate with greater autonomy and deliver care to a broader clientele. To foster enhanced roles for nurses as case managers and team leaders, nursing administrators must alert the work environment to offer a continuum of care on site and off site. Nurse educators will need to offer innovative programs, curricula, and clinical placements that prepare nurses for careers characterized by critical thinking and maximum flexibility. Nurse researchers will need to add more health care system, economic and policy studies to their repertoire.”

And another:

“Nurses want to do more in a reformed system to facilitate access at a reasonable cost.  We want to do what we are educated to do – provide […]

2016-11-21T13:14:18-05:00January 18th, 2011|career, health care policy, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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