Recent Activity

Before adjourning until November, Congress passed a stopgap measure to fund the government at current levels until December 20. When they return after the election for a lame duck session, House and Senate leadership will need to prioritize passing a Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations bill. With legislators are home in their districts over the next few months, it is the perfect time to let them know how important it is to fund priorities such as palliative care research in an appropriations bill but also to make sure any end-of-year package includes language to extend COVID-19 telehealth flexibilities, including the option to conduct the hospice recertification face-to-face visit via telehealth, past the deadline of December 31.  For more information, read the letter that HPNA and partner organizations sent to House and Senate leadership last week.

On September 18, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 41-0 to pass H.R. 7623, the Telehealth Modernization Act. This bipartisan legislation would extend through 2026 certain flexibilities authorized during the public health emergency related to COVID-19, including the opportunity to use telehealth to conduct the required face-to-face (F2F) encounter under the Medicare hospice benefit. It also would allow rural health clinics and federal qualified health centers to serve as the distant site, the home of a beneficiary to serve as a distant site for all services, and all types of practitioners to furnish telehealth services, as determined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

HPNA recently sent a letter to Capitol Hill thanking Senate appropriators for including funding for palliative care research, nursing workforce, and other priorities in the Senate Fiscal Year 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.

In July, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health advanced a Fiscal Year 2025 Labor-HHS Appropriations bill that included significant cuts to programs that impact nurses, specifically, an $18 million decrease from FY 2024 levels for Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs and a reorganization of the National Institutes of Health that would consolidate the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) into a new National Institute on Health Sciences Research. HPNA continues to work with coalition partners to ensure that these concerning provisions are not included in the final bill.

HPNA recently sent comments to Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) on several key provisions of the Hospice CARE Act discussion draft.

The National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care highlights equitable access to high-intensity palliative care.

As we celebrate National Nurses Week, May 6th – 12th, 64 members of the Nursing Community Coalition (NCC) urge Congress to support our current and future nurses, Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), nurse leaders, boards of nursing, faculty, and scientists.