President-elect’s Mid-Year Assembly Report 2009

Greetings everyone,

This past week, Nichole Stone and I attended the AANA Mid-Year Assembly in Washington, DC.  There are several practice issues that we discussed with our Health Legislative Assistants (HLAs) in the offices of Representative Welch, Senator Leahy and Senator Sanders.  The issues for this year revolved around healthcare reform and maintaining equality in legislative action between CRNAs and anesthesiologists and eliminating barriers to our practice.  We also wanted their continued support for equal educational funding for both groups as mandated by Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, Section 139.  We also wanted continued support for reversing the cuts in Medicare reimbursement scheduled for July 2009.

The meeting opened Sunday with a speech from AANA president Jackie Rowles.  She reported on the various meetings and discussions she has been involved in over the last year such as the Safe Injection Practices and the various discussions she and the Board have had over the year on our practice rights with the ASA and CMS.  One interesting piece of information is the request by JACHO to CMS to enter into a Deemed Status agreement with JACHO that ends physician supervision for advanced practice nurses.

Several talks on our issues and various important matters affecting CRNAs that are going on in Washington were presented by Frank Purcell, Senior Director, Federal Government Affairs, and his staff.  MYA had a record number of attendees.  There were 600 AANA members, 200 of whom were SRNAs.

Candidates for the various AANA committees and officers were presented on Monday with speeches from the various candidates for the Board of Directors, Vice President and President-elect.  Their speeches will be available on the AANA website.

Tuesday, the AANA PAC held an event featuring Senator Jean Shaheen (D-NH).  As most of you may know, Senator Shaheen who, as governor of New Hampshire, supported and signed the Opt-out letter for New Hampshire ending the CMS supervision requirement for the CRNAs in that state. 

Tuesday morning, Nicole and I went to Capitol Hill to begin our legislative visits.  Nicole is the Vermont Association’s government relations chair and the nominating committee chair.  We met with the HLA for Congressman Peter Welch.  We were well received and had quite a bit of educating to do before discussing our issues since the HLA was not all that familiar with CRNAs and what we do and where we do what we do.

Wednesday, we met with the HLA for Senator Leahy who, although we did need to educate her about CRNAs, was very enthusiastic and very interested in our issues, all of which seemed to be a “no brainer” for her.  We were able to meet briefly with Senator Leahy including having our picture taken with him in the Capitol rotunda.  We ended our visit to the Hill in Senator Sanders office speaking with his HLA.  All in all, the visits went very well and I expect they will support our causes.  Congress is getting serious about healthcare reform and CRNAs are being more and more recognized as part of the healthcare reform solution.

One of the most rewarding things I enjoyed was the networking and socializing with members from other states.  Many of these members are friends I have made over the years and it is always good to get together.  I also make new friends every time I attend a meeting.

Finally, I want to close with a request for more support from the members of our association.  We have 44 active members.  The issues that affect our practice rights across the country affect our rights here in Vermont.  Currently, there are only a handful of us taking on all of the duties that are necessary to run an association.  As the time approaches for our treasurer/secretary to relinquish his position, we have no one to continue that very important function.  Your Board is in the process of locating a management firm to take over the day-to-day business of the association.

Much of what we do, as members of the Board, is attending various AANA meetings such as MYA, National, FPD, NEANA, and State.  Our numbers in attendance at MYA is especially dismal.  We need more representation of Vermont CRNAs especially at Mid-Year where strength is in numbers.  There is a mechanism where the MYA meeting is fully funded for those members who take time to lobby for CRNAs in Vermont.  If there was only one meeting one could attend during the year, MYA is the meeting that, in my opinion, is most important.  I am asking for four members who have not been to MYA to accept my offer and attend next year, April 25-28, all expenses paid.  If we do not protect our practice rights, then we face losing those rights altogether.

Until next time, Mark

Click Here for Nicole Stones Report from the April 09 Mid Year Assembly 26k .pdf

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