APHON Supports Revisions to Payment Policies – APHON supported a letter that proposed changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and the Quality Payment Program in order to better support care for patients with serious illnesses and chronic conditions.

APHON supported a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid supporting changes to opioid policy, but proposed several guiding principles to ensure that cancer patients and others with serious illnesses would be exempt from opioid exemptions.

APHON joined the Patient Quality of Life Coalition in providing a response to the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018. The letter noted that PQLC supported efforts the efforts in the bill but asked for Congress to consider the needs of hospice and palliative care patients.

APHON joined the Sickle Cell Disease Coalition to support the Sickle Cell Disease Research, Surveillance, Prevention, and Treatment Act (H.R. 2410). This legislation would give the Centers for Disease Control the authority to carry out programs related to SCD, the complications related to the disease, and sickle cell trait.

APHON supported a position statement on full practice authority for advanced practice registered nurses written by the American Academy of Nursing.

APHON joined the Nursing Community Coalition in asking the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to make the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Authorization Act of 2017 (HR 959 and S 1109, respectively) a priority during the second session of the 115th Congress. Support for this would reauthorize Title VIII funding through 2020.

APHON joined the Nursing Community Coalition in asking the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to fund each the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs and the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) with at least the levels proposed by the Senate’s Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee bill totaling $234.472 million for Title VIII programs and $155.210 million for NINR in FY 2018.

APHON joined patient and provider groups urging Congress to facilitate discussion and consideration of alternative policies that would genuinely increase access to promising investigational therapies.

APHON joined other advocates for children and pregnant women in urging Congress to enact a five-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) which provides high-quality, cost-effective coverage for low-income children and pregnant women in working families.

APHON joined other organizations with concern about potential changes to the fundamental structure and purpose of Medicaid.