Responses from Stakeholders

Part of our political action plan was to contact key legislators. Because Representative Steve Kagen is the primary sponsor of this bill, we felt it necessary to contact him and invite him to visit our blog. He was contacted via e-mail and informed that we supported his vision regarding the need for change in home health care. He did not respond personally but was courteous enough to respond with an e-mail that read, "Thank you for contacting me. My staff and I are working hard for you and will respond as soon as possible. I am very interested in listening to your opinions and feel honored to have the opportunity to serve your best interests. Because of the large number of correspondences we receive, it may take me several weeks to respond. Thank you for your patience. Thanks again for sharing your concerns with me. Let's work together, and we will build a better future for all of us." Although we did not get immediate feedback, we hope to continue our efforts in educating the general public about this growing concern.

A JMU home health instructor responded: “I am very impressed. I would like to know if this can be used even as a teaching tool in our Home Health practicum course senior level 2. The visuals are sharp, the content is focused. This blog spurred me on, and I signed up for SaveHomeHealth and their postings. I will contact Mark Warner. I feel like I am taking part in something very important as I am in the field each week (even at the minimal level of faculty overseeing students with their nurse preceptors). Again, this is very professional appearing!”

A current senior II was contacted. She said that our page looked great and that it was very professional. She stated that she is currently in a home health clinical and realizes the importance and need for home health nurses. She joined our blog and supports the Home Health Promotion Act of 2009.

The Vice President of Public Policy for the VNAA, Kathleen Sheehan, responded to the letter sent and asked to schedule a phone call with one of our group members to further discuss our blog page.

We did not receive responses from the two co-sponsors and the three Virginia Legislators that were contacted via e-mail.

Bill Progression

Unfortunately there has not been any progression in the Home Healthcare Nurse Promotion Act of 2009. We as a group hope that by contacting several key stakeholders and encouraging them to visit our blog, we can interest them in the Act. We are strong supporters of this bill and want to see it passed. Encouraging others to join in our efforts will hopefully strengthen our drive.

Stakeholders that were contacted

The stakeholders that were contacted included:

• The main sponsor (Steve Kagen)
• Two co-sponsors
• Virginia Legislators
• JMU Home Health Instructor
• Current JMU Senior II
• VNAA and home health agency

Stakeholders for Home Healthcare Promotion Act

We believe that the stakeholders of the Home Healthcare Nurse Promotion Act are:

• high- risk, under served clients and all other clients requiring home health care: The clients are stakeholders because if this bill is passed it will increase the amount of homehealth nurses to provide for those at risk. It will decrease the cost of the services for underserved clients because there will be more home health nurses available. It will also decrease hospital stay, if clients were able to be treated inside their home.

• home health agencies (VNAA) : Home Health agencies will be affected because this act will promote an increase in the nurse-client ratio allowing more clients to be seen on a regular basis. It will also increase the retention rate of their staff.

• new graduate RNs and current RNs: It will provide more opportunities for employment for new grads and current grad RNs. The bill will also allow RNs to change their specialty if they are currently seeking new interests in the healthcare field.

• nursing schools and their educators: The curriculum in nursing schools will change if the bill is passed. There will be more focus on education concerning home health. The educators will have to update themselves on the knowledge of home health in order to meet the nursing school's standards.

• legislators: Legislators are a stakeholder because they are the key component in helping to support the bill. They speak on the issue of Home Health to promote the government to pass the bill. We want to invite Virginia legislators to support the bill and to increase the awareness of the importance of Home Health.

• government insurance (Medicare): We believe that Medicare is an important stakeholder because it will affect a change in their budget if the bill is passed. The government may have to provide more financial support to those on Medicare to receive Home Health services.

According to the missions and goals of this bill, we feel that all of these stakeholders will be affected in some way due to the passing of the Home Healthcare Act and the implementation of change.

Taking Action

As nursing students, our goal is to inform the general public about The Home Health Nurse Promotion Act of 2009. We want those affected by the shortage of home healthcare to become educated about why it is necessary to increase services, promote academic-practice collaborations, and enhance the recruitment and retention of home healthcare nurses. The first step in our political action plan is to provide readers with up to date information and articles that support why home healthcare services need improvement through this blog that we have created. It is also our goal to contact key legislators and invite them to visit our blog. We hope that they will recognize how passionate we are about this bill. Also, we have provided our readers with information regarding Medicare and the budget cuts that will affect home healthcare services. On our blog is a link that leads to a petition that our readers can sign if they support the protection of home healthcare services. Lastly, we plan to contact Virginia legislators and invite them to become co-sponsors for the bill. We hope that they will grasp what this could mean for the healthcare system and how it can benefit both healthcare workers and patients.

Refer to our previous post "Home Health Nursing...A Growing Trend" to read a scholarly based article describing why home healthcare needs change and improvement.

Learn more about Steve Kagen

Steve Kagen attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he earned a Degree in molecular biology, with Honors. Kagen then entered medical school, and later trained at both Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He is triple Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology. Dr. Kagen went on to become an allergist, founding four clinics in Wisconsin. His financial success as an allergist allowed him to heavily invest in his own campaign, which was a key to his success in the congressional race.
On September 12, 2006, Kagen, a first time candidate, won the democratic party nomination for Wisconsin's 8th District after investing almost $2 million of his own money into his primary campaign. Kagen ran largely on his credentials as a physician. His campaign presented his national and international reputation for groundbreaking research while discovering new causes of asthma. His advertising repeatedly referred to the fact that Wisconsin doctors voted him one of the "best doctors in America." He promised to fight to ensure that every American could get affordable health care. Kagen's narrow 51-49% victory has been largely attributed to his substantial personal spending and the national Democratic wave.
Kagen was again challenged by Republican former State Assembly Speaker John Gard in 2008. Kagen won reelection, defeating Gard with 54% of the vote. This victory makes Kagen only the second Democrat in forty years to win reelection while representing Wisconsin's eighth district.

Steve Kagens official website can be found by clicking here

Sign the Petition to Save Home Health Care

Congress is proposing to drastically reduce Medicare reimbursement for home health services to the chronically sick and elderly. They plan on cutting $57 billion out of the Medicare home health benefit over 10 years. Home health represents only 4.5% of the total Medicare budget, but 11% of the proposed total cuts.

Home health is a key solution for lowering the cost of health care. It is the most cost effective way to care for the sick and elderly. More importantly, the sick and elderly want to stay in their home. They recover more quickly at home with family and friends. Without home health care, seniors will be readmitted into hospitals and transferred to nursing homes, both of which will put a greater financial burden on our Medicare system.

To our Elected Representatives in the United States Congress:

We, the undersigned patients, providers and supporters of home health care, want it publicly known that we demand that you do all that you can to save the home health community. If Congress follows through with drastic cuts to the Medicare benefit for home health care services;

• Thousands of patients will be forced into institutions
• Thousands of people will be put out of work
• Medicare will actually pay more for caring for many people than if the home care option were available
  

We ask you to educate yourself, join our cause, and convince your colleagues to protect home health care as Congress debates health care reform in Washington D.C. Protecting jobs and providing the best treatment possible for patients should be your top priority, and home health care is a key part of the solution.

Click here to sign the petition!