AANA Federal Government Affairs
HOTLINE
Number 2008-06 -- Week of Monday,
March 10, 2008
In This Issue:
*
CMS Director for Medicare Management
Estimates Double Digit Medicare Part
B
Reimbursement Cut July 1st
* Nursing School Graduates Rise
While Applications to RN Programs
Drop
* Senate and House Budget Committees
Pass FY 2009 Budget Resolution
* Legislation Would Make it Easier
for Career Military Nurses to
Transition to Teaching
* Amendments
>> CMS Director for Medicare
Management Estimates Double Digit
Medicare Part B Reimbursement Cut
July 1st
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) estimates that
Medicare payments to physicians will
decline by 10.6% below current
levels on July 1st and by
15.4% below current levels on
January 1st, 2009, under
the current payment formula. CRNAs
will be directly affected by this
cut, and the AANA continues to work
with members of Congress to fix this
reimbursement inadequacy. The
estimates were released on Friday
(March 7th), in a letter
from Jeffrey Rich, Director of the
CMS
Center for Medicare Management,
to the
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
(MedPAC). The cuts
reflect an increase in the volume of
services provided by physicians that
exceeds growth targets.
Congress
is working on a Medicare package
that would block the cuts. One plan
by the
Senate
Finance Committee
would block all cuts in 2008 and
2009. Rich in the letter also
outlined steps CMS is taking to
improve quality and efficiency,
including:
Rich in the letter wrote, ‘The real issue is how Medicare can rapidly transform itself from a passive payer for services into an active purchaser of high-quality care by linking payment to the value of care provided” (CQ HealthBeat, 3/3).
Visit for CMS, http://www.cms.hhs.gov/
Visit the Center for Medicare Management, http://www.cms.hhs.gov/CMSLeadership/06_Office_CMM.asp
Visit the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, http://www.medpac.gov/
Visit the
Senate Finance Committee,
http://www.senate.gov/~finance
>> Nursing School Graduates Rise
While Applications to RN Programs
Drop
Admissions to nursing schools at all
levels rose 5 percent, but the
number of applicants declined 8.7
percent from 2005-2006, according to
a new report from the National
League for Nursing (NLN), with
impacts on the workforce pool
available to apply to nurse
anesthesia educational programs.
One out of three qualified
applicants were turned away from
programs because of a lack of
capacity, with baccalaureate
programs turning away 20 percent and
associate degree programs turning
away 32.7 percent of their
applicants. In addition, because 43
percent of pre-licensure nursing
graduates were over the age of 30 in
2006 and 16 percent were over the
age of 40, the volume of graduates
may be increasing but the length of
time graduates will spend in the
workforce is reduced by their delay
in entering the profession. The NLN
will begin its next survey this
month to evaluate the 2006-2007
academic term.
Read
the Executive
Summary of
NLN
Nursing Data Review Academic Year
2005-06,
http://www.nln.org/research/datareview/executive_summary.pdf
>> Senate and House Budget
Committees Pass FY 2009 Budget
Resolution
On
Thursday (March 6th), the
Senate Budget
Committee
voted 12-10 along party lines to
pass a $3 trillion fiscal year 2009
budget resolution that would provide
more in spending for healthcare for
children and veterans and other
domestic programs than President
Bush has requested (CongressDaily,
3/7). The AANA is working on
Capitol Hill in 2009 to reverse
anticipated cuts to the Medicare
program and to nurse workforce
development funding critical to
CRNAs.
The Senate budget resolution
includes $18 billion more in
spending for domestic programs than
President Bush has requested (CQ
Today,
3/6). Before approval of the budget
resolution, the committee passed
several amendments, two of which
would reserve funds for pediatric
dental care and promote healthcare
information technology (HIT) (CongressDaily,
3/6).
Also on
Thursday (March 6th), the
House
Budget Committee
voted 22-16 to pass
a FY 2009 budget resolution that
includes $22 billion more in
spending for domestic programs than
President Bush has requested (CQ
Today,
3/6). President Bush responded by
threatening to veto any FY 2009
appropriations bill that exceeds his
request for spending and does not
reduce the number of FY 2008
“earmark” projects by half (CongressDaily,
3/7). The full House and Senate are
considering the budget resolutions
the week of March 10. (CQ
Today,
3/6).
Visit the
Senate Budget Committee,
http://www.senate.gov/~budget/
Visit the House Budget Committee,
http://www.house.gov/budget_democrats/
>> Legislation Would Make it Easier
for Career Military Nurses to
Transition to Teaching
On
Wednesday (March 5th),
Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) along
with 10 co-sponsors introduced the
Troops to Nurse Teachers (TNT) Act
of 2008 (S. 2705). The
legislation has been referred to the
Armed Services Committee and would
provide opportunities for Nurse
Corps Officers in the Armed Forces
the ability to transition to faculty
positions at accredited nursing
schools after retirement. The
measure was introduced with a letter
of support from a wide range of
nursing organizations, including the
AANA.
The TNT Act is modeled after the
Department of Defense program
established in 1994 to encourage
retiring military personnel to teach
school in high-need parts of the
country, focusing on the subjects of
math and science. The bill would
help alleviate the nursing shortage
by increasing faculty in schools of
nursing.
Read more,
http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=257099
View the bill,
http://thomas.loc.gov
Click “Bill Number"
Enter “S 2705”
>> Amendments
>> For More Information
The
AANA Federal Government Affairs
Hotline is published for the nurse
anesthetist members of AANA each
week Congress is in session by the
AANA Office of Federal Government
Affairs, Washington DC,
202-484-8400,
info@aanadc.com, Frank Purcell,
Senior Director. © 2008 American
Association of Nurse Anesthetists.