From The President

July 2009

Dear Colleagues,

I am sure each of you are wondering how the Primary
Care Bill will affect you and where we are in the implementation process. We have a lot of information in this newsletter that will hopefully update you and answer your questions.

Implementing the PCP bill is only one of our current activities. We are working very hard to stay abreast of all the changes in health care. This is no small task. Every day at the state and federal level there are discussions of how the US must address the health care crisis. Multiple health care reform bills are being filed at the federal level and daily we face the challenges of making our state reform package remain viable in a troubled economy. Each of you hear this every day, in the news and in the papers. So why am I writing about it?

I hope to tickle your curiosity, gain your support
and voice and hopefully give you some insight into what is happening right now. We have to stay vigilant. Every day groups try to exclude nurse
practitioners or find a way to block our progress.
We have to speak out loud and clear when this
happens.

We may have passed our legislation about primary care status and we are the first in the country to have such legislation. But as you will see, new bills filed may jeopardize that success.

At the federal level, Senator Kennedy is working on health care reform that as of now makes no mention of nurse practitioners. None of the proposed federal reform packages to date include us. Legislators lump us in with nursing and to this day, do not clearly
understand who we are and what we do. We need to continue to tell them who we are. This is the mission of the AANP, ACNP and MCNP. But it is also the professional responsibility of each individual nurse practitioner. You control your own destiny.

We must begin to be as proactive as the physicians.
We have to move beyond the reactionary phase, organize and be heard - or we will be left out yet
again.

Each and every NP in Massachusetts should be calling and writing to Senator Kennedy, reminding him that we are vital to the health care system and that any health reform package must be inclusive of nurse practitioners. Senator Kennedy needs to be reminded of how many nurse practitioners live in Massachusetts and that we are watching his work. Let him know we MUST not be lumped in under nursing in any health care reform legislation. We MUST be included with the same considerations as the physicians. Today is the day to start being proactive.

Please visit our Legislative Page for an outline of several pieces of legislation that have been filed at the state level: http://mcnpweb.org/legislative_news_detail.php?news_id=18

We at the Coalition are responding to them in writing, but your opinion carries weight as well. We will post the letters we have sent on our website for your review. Feel free to send in testimony also and to call your Senators and Representatives to voice your concerns. The contact information for your state ad federal legislators can be found at http://www.votesmart.org/.

We will stay vigilant for you and will update you as these bills progress or not.

I hope you each have a wonderful summer and don’t forget to speak up!

Nancy O'Rourke, MSN, ACNP, ANP, RnC.
President Massachusetts Coalition of Nurse Practitioners and AANP State Representative