May 6, 2021 News-You-May-Use from The American Association of Nurse Practitioners

NP Legislation: Advocating to Remove Federal Barriers

As an NP and constituent, your voice matters and needs to be heard. Please take this opportunity to advocate on behalf of NP legislation by visiting the AANP Advocacy Center and sending letters to your Members of Congress. 

The Promoting Access to Diabetic Shoes Act of 2021, S.800, was introduced in the Senate by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Susan Collins (R-ME). This legislation would authorize NPs and PAs to certify a Medicare beneficiary’s need for therapeutic shoes, thus improving the timeliness and access to care while reducing costs. Please urge your Senators to support this legislation. 

The Increasing Access to Quality Cardiac Rehabilitation Care Act of 2021, H.R.1956, was introduced in the House. Previously passed as part of the Bipartisan Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 2018 (Public Law 115–123), was the authorization for NPs and PAs to supervise cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, starting in 2024. This legislation will change the BBA’s effective date for supervision of these services from 2024 to 2022 and will also authorize NPs and PAs to order cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation starting in 2022. Therefore, this legislation would retire this barrier to practice by allowing NPs to order and supervise cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation starting in 2022. Please urge your Representative to support this legislation.

 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Issues New Buprenorphine Practice Guidelines

On April 27, 2021, HHS released new practice guidelines for the administration of buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). These new guidelines allow qualified nurse practitioners (NPs) and other health care professionals (qualified practitioners) to prescribe buprenorphine for OUD to as many as 30 patients without requiring them to obtain a Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 waiver (DATA-waiver). Qualified practitioners are still required to submit an application, designated as a “Notice of Intent” (NOI), in order to prescribe buprenorphine for the treatment of OUD and to indicate a patient limit of 30 on the NOI. Qualified practitioners who plan to treat more than 30 patients at a time with buprenorphine for OUD will need to go through the current DATA-waiver process. The new practice guidelines became effective April 28, 2021. Further information is available on AANP’s website and in the HHS announcement.

And MAAPC's Board wishes everyone a great Nurses Week