Home Health Planning and Improvement Act 2015

This was recently posted by ANA:  PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN 

ANA is thrilled to announce S. 578, H.R. 1342, the Home Health Planning and Improvement Act 2015 has been introduced for consideration by the 114th Congress. Thanks to the support from Senators Susan Collins(R-ME) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), along with Representatives Greg Walden (R-OR),Ron Kind (D-WI), and Danny Davis (D-IL), this bill would amend a section of Medicare law which has kept advanced practice nurses (APRNs), a group that includes nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and certified nurse midwives from signing home health plans of care and certifying Medicare patients for the home health benefit.

These health care professionals now coordinate the majority of skilled care for home health patients, and this outdated prohibition has led to delays in health care delivery. These delays in care not only inconvenience patients and their families -- they result in increased cost to the Medicare system when patients are unnecessarily left in more expensive institutional settings. The Home Health Planning and Improvement Act would eliminate this barrier, permitting APRNs to be recognized for services they are currently providing without added physician intervention.

We need your help!

We need you to take action and contact your member of Congress to ask them to cosponsor the Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act of 2015.