AAENP Provides Testimony to Senate Appropriations Subcommittee

On April 4, AAENP joined with sixty-one members of the Nursing Community Coalition (NCC) in signing onto written testimony submitted to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies. This testimony outlined rationale for funding requests of at least $530 million for the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs and at least $210 million for the National Institute of Nursing Research for Fiscal Year 2024.   AAENP has also signed onto a Nurse Practitioner Organizations letter expressing support for the Improving Care and Access to Nurses (ICAN) Act (H.R. 2713), which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 19, 2023. The ICAN Act would increase access to health care services for patients across the country by removing outdated federal Medicare and Medicaid barriers to care on advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) and their patients. For nurse practitioners (NPs), this bill would authorize NPs to order cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, certify when patients with diabetes need therapeutic shoes, have their patients fully included in the beneficiary attribution process for the Medicare Shared Savings Program, refer patients for medical nutrition therapy, certify and recertify a patient’s terminal illness for hospice eligibility, perform all mandatory examinations in skilled nursing facilities and more.