Outline a current or emerging health care law or federal regulation introduced to reform or restructure some aspect of the health care delivery system. Describe the effect of this on nursing practice and the nurse’s role and responsibility.

NRS-440VN Health Care Delivery Models and Nursing Practice

Federal Healthcare Law Reform

A recent federal law that reforms healthcare in the United States would be the Sustaining Excellence in Medicaid Act of 2019 (HR 3253). This bill was introduced into Congress on June 13 2020 and signed into law on August 6 2020. The Michigan representative, Debbie Dingell, introduced and sponsored this bill. The bill seeks to restructure the Medicaid program by providing for some extensions in some of its provisions (KDP LLP, 2019). One of the changes made was allowing the appropriations of Medicaid through to the fiscal year 2024. Another reform in Medicaid authorized in this bill is allowing the state fraud units within the program to consider and examine complaints from the non-institutionalized patients. This reform is important because it eliminates some of the disparities that arise from the ignoring of the complaints from such patients, yet, legally, they qualify for cover under the Medicaid program.

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Another reform introduced by this bill is extending the Medicaid eligibility for individuals to protect them from spousal impoverishment or poverty. Sometimes, spouses from the lower socioeconomic backgrounds are denied cover given that Medicaid does not extend to them. This bill extends cover to such populations, including those who receive home-based and community-based medical services. In addition to these reforms, this bill repeals the requirements placed for the drug manufacturers to always include the prices for generic drugs when determining the price. It also excludes drug manufacturers from the definition of drug wholesalers to allow rebate calculations.

This bill affects the nursing practice by adjusting the nurse’s role and responsibility. For instance, since the bill extends Medicaid to cover the spouses and protect them from impoverishment, the nurse should ensure that they educate all patients about the new changes to this bill. A patient may be suffering from spousal poverty which limits their access to quality medical care. The nurse should be able to identify such patients, and educate them about the new changes to help them access quality medical care. Another way this bill affects the nurse’s role and responsibility is that it adds to the role of advocacy in nursing. The nurse should advocate for the non-institutionalized patients whenever they have complaints, and help them appeal to Medicaid in the event of denial of services. The new bill covers the patients and enables them to have their complaints reviewed, hence, increasing their chances of getting social justice. The nurse should be an advocate and help the patients access social justice by helping them lodge complaints.

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