Please respond to the discussion and respond to the peer discussions

DQ1

Choose one legislator on the state or federal level who is also a nurse, and discuss the importance of their role as advocate for improving health care delivery. What specific bill(s) have they sponsored or supported that has/have influenced health care?

DQ2

Discuss how the CMS reimbursement rules for never events required a shift in the patient care delivery model in inpatient facilities.

Peer DQ1

Erin Murphy has been a nurse since 1984 and has served five terms inthe House of Representatives for the state of Minnesota. She has spentmuch of her career working to ensure people have access to healthcare. Prior to being elected into public office, she worked as theexecutive director of the Minnesota Nurses’ Association, whereshe was successful in passing MinnesotaCare, which is a healthinsurance program for workers with low-to-moderate income that are notable to purchase private insurance (Szulecki, 2017).

Nursing has allowed Erin to be a better advocate for health. Inorder to pass MinnesotaCare, she understood the impact nurses play animportant role in patient health and organized multiple nurses totestify in support of the program (Szulecki, 2017).

Upon election into public office, she authored Health Care Homes, alegislative policy that expanded access to care that was affordable.The policy was enacted in 2008. This policy is based on a medical homemodel that links primary care to wellness and prevention as well asself-management and community services. It is aimed to assist thechronically ill and others with complex conditions (Szulecki, 2017).

Other issues she has worked on during her service include:women’s health, affordable childcare, greater health care accessfor employees of schools, etc. Her current work includes a bill thatwould establish a public health insurance option for all Minnesotaresidents, and she is also campaigning for governor (Szulecki, 2017).

Being a nurse has offered Erin Murphy a unique perspective on healthcare. She has witnessed first-hand the challenges that patientsexperience to gain access to and utilize coverage. She also cared forher mother, who had small cell lung cancer. She observed how hermother, who had quality health insurance, still had to fight withinsurance companies to gain access to the care that she needed. All ofthis experience has contributed to her work, and she also activelytries to recruit nurses to work in public office (Szulecki, 2017).

Szulecki, D. (2017). Nurse in the legislature. AmericanJournal of Nursing, 117(4): 68-69. doi: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000515241.67042.09

Peer DQ2

Nurses play an important role in the health care setting asthey
make up almost 3 million workers within the healthcaresetting making them a predominant
figure in the health caresetting. Their influence is not always within a
hospital ormedical setting but it can also be at a legislativelevel
considering some nurses make their way to positions aslegislators at the state
or federal level.

Congresswoman Diane Black is an example of a federal
legislatorfor the Tennessee’s 6^th district. She was originallya
nurse and has over 40 years of experience working in the healthcare field
which has helped her to have the knowledge needed as acongresswoman to help
reform and change issues with our currenthealth care environment
(Black.House.gov, 2018). For example, in2011 Congresswoman Black had
legislation sign into a law a repealto Obamacare which saved taxpayers $13
billion (Black.House.gov,2018). Her specific health care knowledge gives her
insight intowhat people face when they are seeking medical care andwhat
changes should be made to help them at the congressional level.

Black.House.gov. (2018). About U.S. Congressman DianeBlack.
Retrieved from: https://black.house.gov/about

Peer DQ3

Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas is anexperienced politician and nurse. She has over 23 years serving incongress and 60 years as a nurse. Most off her nursing career wasspent working within the Veterans Affairs. She was appointed chiefpsychiatric nurse and then was appointed director of the U.S.Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. While working at theVA she noticed how horrible and unproductive the conditions whereand thought there had to have been a better way to provide care. Sheknew that there was no way she was going to be able to make anychanges at the level she was at since everything was running fromthe top down. She knew she had to do more if she wanted to see anychanges take place within the healthcare circuit she was working.

She worked closely with the Obamaadministration in support the Affordable Care Act, she supportsMedicaid and Medicare. Also, she has authored and co-sponsored billsthat support nurses, women, and families afflicted by mental healthissues. There are really many other bills but her primary focus whenit comes to health care are Medicare and Medicaid.

Reference:

Daniels, J. Z. (2015, July 1).Minority nurse. Retrieved September 3, 2018, from Minoritynurse.comwebsite: https://minoritynurse.com/from-the-bedside-to-the-…

U.S. representative Eddie BerniceJohnson representing the 30th district of Texas. (n.d.). RetrievedSeptember 3, 2018, from ebjohnson.house.gov website: https://ebjohnson.house.gov/issues/health-care

Peer DQ4

Rep. Karen Bass, APRN, D-Calif. In November2016, Congresswoman Bass earned her fourth term representingCalifornia's 33rd congressional district. Within the House Committeeon Foreign Affairs, Congresswoman Bass serves as a ranking member ofthe Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights andInternational Organizations. She is also a member of the HouseJudiciary Committee and serves as the Congressional Black Caucus'second vice chair for the 115th Congress. Democratic Leader NancyPelosi chose Congresswoman Bass to serve on the Steering and Policy Committee.

Congresswoman Bass is an advanced practice registered nurse,previously serving as a physician assistant, nurse and instructor atKeck School of Medicine of USC in Los Angeles.

As a former Physician Assistant, Karen saw firsthand how people inLos Angeles and across the country struggled to secure basic healthcare. High costs kept them from pursuing the care they needed andtreatable conditions like hypertension and diabetes became much worsebecause they were not treated early.

It is because of her experience that Karen has been such a stridentadvocate for healthcare coverage for all Americans. In Congress, Karenis a strong supporter of the Affordable Care Act because it hasprovided health insurance to over 46,000 of her constituents who didnot have health coverage before the law and has cut the number ofuninsured Californians in her Congressional district in half. That isone of the reasons why she has voted over 50 times against Republicanattempts to repeal or undermine the law.

The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, and it is ensuringthat Americans’ health coverage is focused on patients and notinsurance companies by allowing young adults to stay on theirparent’s plan until they are 26 and stopping insurance companiesfrom denying Americans coverage because they have a pre-existingcondition. And because of the law insurance companies can no longerhave life-time caps on coverage, meaning they cannot remove peoplefrom health insurance when they need it the most. Karen wants toexpand and strengthen the Affordable Care Act and support thehealthcare workers across the country who are benefitting from the law.

In California, Karen is making it a top priority to make sure thatAngelenos are taking advantage of healthcare programs available tothem. Karen has worked to provide funds to Los Angeles’community clinics to hire and train outreach and enrollment workers tohelp Angelenos sign up for the new healthcare programs, and shecontinues to host healthcare resource fairs to connect residents tohealthcare providers.

Reference

Health Care.(2015). Karen, Bass. Retrieved from http://www.karenbass.com/health_care

Peer DQ5

Erin Murphy is a representative forthe state of Minnesota. She had worked in the medical field foryears before pursing her role as a member of the Minnesota NursesAssociation. She served for 14 years with the Minnesota NursesAssociation where her passion during her tenure was to improvehealth care services. She was instrumental in the implementation ofthe Minnesota Care program that afforded low to moderate incomefamilies with health insurance coverage. She later pursued seat inthe House of Representative where her passion again was to improveaffordable health care coverage and care. Her personal experiencewith her mother’s illness was her inspiration to furtherimprove health care coverage and care. She described the challengesthat she faced while caring for her ill mother that despite theadequate healthcare coverage she often still had to fight theinsurance company to get the needed care for her mother. She wasinstrumental again in reforming the health care coverage for thecitizens in Minnesota and gave rise to the use of health care homes.She has continued to monitor its progress and has utilized itssuccess in improved outcomes for individuals with chronic healthconditions as well as the affordability and health care costsavings. She has also worked on other issues such as affordablechildcare, women’s health, health care for school employees,and other infrastructure projects (Szulecki, 2017). Erin alsopromotes for nurses to take part in government offices as shestated,” that the fundamental nursing skills likelistening and problem-solving translate well into politics.What’s special about what [nurses] do is that we have to actwhen we’re taking care of patients. We don’t get tosay, ‘This is hard for me, I’m not going to doit.’ We are in a position to make the best decisions we cangiven the circumstances we face. And I think that is a skill and avalue that we have walked away from in our political debate(Szulecki, 2017).” She has served five terms as alegislator and is now currently running for the government office ofMinnesota. Her demeanor and dedication to service demonstrates theviability of the nursing profession.

Reference:

Szulecki, D., (2017). Nurse in theLegislature. American Journal of Nursing, Vol 117:4,p68-69. Retrieved from http://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000515241.67042.09

Peer DQ6

EddieBernice Johnson is one of the state and federal legislators. EddieBernice Johnson is from the state of Texas and is on her13^th term serving as a congress representative andrepresenting Texas's 30th congressional district in the UnitedStates. Johnson has been advocating for the healthcare act and hashelped in ensuring that a considerable number of Americans gainaccess to the necessary and needed care. Johnson in one instanceparticipated in demonstrations in attempts to advocate forhealthcare act following an attempt by the Republicans to have theact repealed (Act, F. I. R. S. T, 2014).

Inaddition, to that, she has sponsored a number of bills with theVeteran’s Medical Personnel Recruitment and Retention act of2009 being one of them (Johnson, DeLauro, & Slaughter, 2015).This bill was raised for anumberof reasons which included the need to streamline the payment systemfor better and ease of comprehension and use. More so, she had anobjective of ensuring that there exist incentives for retiredemployees and as a consequent, motivated the other healthcarepractitioners to deliver services to patients in the optimalapproach conceivable. This led to increased staff retention andreduction of staff turn-over and resignation rates following theretirement benefit based encouragement. The bill was equallyintended to aid in augmenting the education benefits for all newhired Veterinary Administrators as well as the currently workinghealth care providers. The bill plays a crucial part in ensuringthat the healthcare providers gain the propensity to learn on thetrends in healthcare sector.

Further,the bill facilitated the delivery of clarifications on theVeterinary Administrators regulations regarding work schedule andovertime. The bill also eases the process of hiring and retainingnurses by the Veterinary Administrators.

References