ANA shares health-system principles with President-Elect and team

ANA President Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, sent a letter to President-Elect Donald J. Trump on December 5, 2016 sharing ANA’s principles for health-system transformation. In her letter, she emphasized that America’s 3.6 million RNs care profoundly about the health and welfare of the nation, are the most trusted professionals, and provide expert compassionate care throughout healthcare settings.

ANA’s long-held principles state that the healthcare system must:

1. Ensure universal access to a standard package of essential healthcare services for all citizens and residents. This includes:

• an essential benefits package that provides access to comprehensive services, including mental health services

• prohibition of coverage denial due to a preexisting condition

• inclusion of children on parents’ health insurance coverage until age 26

• expansion of Medicaid as a safety net for the most vulnerable, including the chronically ill, elderly, and poor.

2. Optimize primary, community-based, and preventive services while supporting cost-effective use of innovative, technologydriven, acute, hospital-based services. This includes:

• primary health care that focuses on developing an engaged partnership with the patient

• primary health care that includes preventive, curative, and rehabilitative services delivered in a coordinated manner by members of the healthcare team

• removal of barriers and restrictions that prevent RNs and advanced practice RNs from contributing fully to patient care in all communities

• care-coordination services that reduce costs and improve outcomes, with consistent payment for all qualified health professionals delivering such services, including nurses.

3. Encourage mechanisms to stimulate economical use of healthcare services while supporting those who lack the means to share costs. This includes:

• a partnership between the government and private sector to bear healthcare costs

• payment systems that reward quality and appropriate, effective use of resources

• beneficiaries paying for a portion of their care to provide an incentive for efficient use of services while ensuring that deductibles and co-payments are not a barrier to receiving care

• elimination of lifetime caps or annual limits on coverage

• federal subsidies based on an income-based sliding scale to assist individuals to purchase insurance coverage.

4. Ensure a suffcient supply of a skilled workforce dedicated to providing high-quality healthcare services. This includes:

• an adequate supply of well-educated, well-distributed, and well-utilized RNs

• increased funding, whether grant or loan-repayment based, for programs and services focused on increasing the primary care workforce

• funding to elevate support for increasing nursing faculty and workforce diversity.

ANA’s health-system principles sparked media interest, including coverage in such national news outlets as Beckers Hospital Review, Forbes magazine and HealthLeadersMedia.com.