Four lawmakers in the House introduced legislation on Tuesday to protect nursing programs based in hospitals nationwide from regulatory requirements enforced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and their accreditation affiliates.
The bipartisan bill, known as the Making Educating Nurses Dependable (MEND) Act, was introduced by U.S. Reps. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Charlie Rangel (D-NY).
“At a time when our country is facing a shortage of nurses, we must ensure that our hospital-based nursing schools – like the partnership between Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center Campus and the Baker University School of Nursing in Topeka, Kansas – can continue to provide a world-class education for nursing professionals,” Jenkins said. “Hospital-based nursing schools are extremely valuable and give students real-world experience to better serve our community. This bipartisan, sensible legislation is critical for the future of our health care work force, and I look forward to working with Representatives Tonko, Kinzinger and Rangel to quickly pass this bill in the House.”
“With this bill, we have an immediate opportunity to work in a bipartisan fashion so that hospital-based nursing schools nationwide aren’t faced with the choice between accreditation and maintaining critical federal funding,” Tonko said. “I look forward to working with (my fellow representatives) to advance this important legislation. Moving forward, I hope to see more efforts from Congress that make access to high-quality educational opportunities in health care – and every job sector – more available.”
The MEND Act would cost taxpayers nothing and would mean that CMS regulations would be modernized to allow hospital-based nursing programs to have the opportunity to retain their accreditation and receive Medicare funding.
“With thousands of Illinoisans still struggling to make ends meet, we need to be doing all we can to help train job-seekers for the jobs of today and tomorrow,” Kinzinger said. “Nursing is the nation’s largest health care profession, with over 2.6 million registered nurses serving their communities in hospitals and other settings nationwide, with more than 1.2 million additional RNs expected to be needed by 2020. We must promote and pass policies like the bipartisan MEND Act to ensure that hospital-based nursing programs like the Saint Anthony College of Nursing in Rockford can continue to prepare a robust nursing work force and help more people in Illinois and around the country get the skills demanded by employers in this growing field.”
“I’m proud to support this critical bill that would help train the most highly qualified nurses to care for our communities. This is a common-sense, bipartisan bill that will ensure our nation’s preparedness to meet the various medical challenges and public health threats of tomorrow,” Rangel said.