Health reform and issues in the US government, US government structure, influencing the introduction of a bill for nursing policy, regulatory processe

Identify a nursing regulatory process at the federal or state level. Discuss how the process affects your nursing role in clinical practice.

Post your initial discussion by 11:59 PM ET on Thursday. Posts are a minimum of 250 words, scholarly written, APA formatted (with some exceptions due to limitations in the D2L editor), and a minimum of 2 references (which may include the course textbook). Reply to at least one classmate’s initial discussion post by Saturday at 11:59 PM ET. The initial discussion post and discussion response should occur on two different calendar days of each electronic week. These are not the complete instructions for participating in discussions. See the “Grading Rubric for Online Discussions – 500 level” found in the Course Resources module.

Health reform and issues in the US government, US government structure, influencing the introduction of a bill for nursing policy, regulatory processes in the profession

Objectives

At the end of this module students will be able to:

• Discuss the various branches of the US government.
• Apply the governmental process in the clinical setting on policy development of a contemporary health issue.
• Describe 2 advantages to nurses who are informed on the process of the US government in policy development.
• Differentiate the legislative and regulatory process.

Readings

Textbook

Mason et al.(2021): Chapters 18, 31, 37, 38, 39, and 46

Web Sites

Health Reform
https://web.archive.org/web/20130724172119/https://www.healthcare.gov/

The Federal Register
www.archives.gov/federal-register

National Council of State Boards of Nursing
www.ncsbn.org/index.htm

Video

Affordable Care Act: Understanding Healthcare Policy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVhGdtSkzZA&index=3&list=PLqF-bKPCi6CpWq4jSXljjw_HOHhFp75Vl

Topics

Healthcare Issues and Government

The most controversial and contemporary health policy issued from the government, since the advent of Medicare, is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. The impact can be seen with:

1. Health insurance protection from discrimination or pre-existing conditions;
2. Increased access to health insurance through subsidies for defined earnings;
3. Dependent children remaining on healthcare insurance plans of parents until 26 years of age;
4. Employers with >50  employees providing access health insurance plans;
5. Availability of preventative screenings to Medicare recipients; and
6. Closing the “doughnut hole” gap for prescription drug coverage with Medicare recipients.

This government policy creates many challenges for our nation with the predicted influx of over 16 million individuals into the healthcare delivery system. This predictably has potential for grave effects on the federal budget. Ongoing details on this policy’s survival at the state and national level are provided ongoing through web site updates. The ACA will affect decision-making in healthcare over the following years. Nursing professionals should rise as healthcare leaders in organizations with this integrated policy and partake in the ongoing monitoring of the effectiveness for developing further recommendations to future policy change.

US Government and the Legislative Process

Passage of the ACA required political action at unprecedented levels for promotion of this agenda at the federal, state, and local levels of government.  Working knowledge of the government legislative process is a priority for nurses wanting to participate in motivating healthcare agendas at all levels. This is a good time in the course to review the operations of the legislative process and how a bill becomes a law; this information can be found at:

https://www.usa.gov/branches-of-government

Regulatory Processes

Regulatory processes directly impact professional work life. Regulations for changing the nursing profession evolve from state levels, but can originate on a federal level, from new or amended law. “Regulations specify definitions, authority, eligibility, benefits, and standards” (Mason et al., 2016, p. 386). Input to these regulations also come from other special interest groups such as professional nursing organizations, for example. The Federal Registrar is a daily publication of proposed regulations at the federal level, which can be reviewed as draft. In addition, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) oversees federal health care programs such as medicare and medicaid. The web site is provided for this above, and everyone is encouraged to access this document and become familiar with the format.