Agree with the AANA ?
You can sign the petition here!
Does the ASA leadership realize they're at war?
This is the propaganda email that populates their submission form:
"
Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ “Regulatory Relief to Support Economic Recovery: Request for Information” (HHS-OS-2020-0016-0001).
My comments today relate specifically to question 2b. First, I strongly support HHS permanently waiving requirements that a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA) be supervised by a physician (Action 193 in Appendix A). Throughout the public health emergency, facilities have required all providers to work to the top of their education and state scope of practice. We have seen CRNAs traveling from their homes to help provide critical care in states that have seen spikes in COVID-19. As CRNAs increasingly practice independently during this crisis, managing delicate intubations of COVID patients, managing ventilators, and working under stressful conditions in facilities across America, we have already shown that removing these barriers to practice benefits patients and the larger healthcare system.
Not only is the permanent removal of physician supervision of CRNAs an important part of the national response to the pandemic, but it also aligns with CMS’s Rural Health Strategy, which cited maximizing scope of practice for providers as one of its key recommendations in its report, “Reforming America’s Healthcare System through Choice and Competition.” It also conforms to recommendations from the New England Journal of Medicine as well as other independent arbiters.
While some may argue that removing physician supervision will harm patient care, this is simply a scare tactic and there is no evidence to back it up. In fact, studies have repeatedly demonstrated the high quality of nurse anesthesia care, and a gold standard study published in Health Affairs led researchers to recommend that costly and duplicative supervision requirements for CRNAs be eliminated. Letting states decide this issue according to their own laws is consistent with Medicare policy reimbursing CRNA services in alignment with their state scope of practice, and with the National Academy of Medicine’s recommendation that “advanced practice registered nurses should be able to practice to the full extent of their education and training.”
The unique “opt-out process” has proven to be an unacceptable alternative to the simple deferral to state law. On one hand, it has proven to be a useful experiment in comparing healthcare in opt-out vs. non-opt-out states, with researchers noting in Health Affairs that “(no) harm (is) found when nurse anesthetists work without physician supervision.” The results of that study are clearly in favor of letting states decide the issue by their statutes. Further, the opt-out is burdensome and counterproductive at the state level resulting in wasted time and money spent on lobbying, public relations campaigns and lawsuits.
This federal supervision requirement is impeding local communities from planning effective and efficient state regulatory frameworks that support innovation. The evidence for CRNA patient safety is clear, and the Medicare agency should eliminate the requirement for governors to request additional permission to implement their own statutes and policies. A state’s statute should not be reversed by the sole decision of the governor without public comment or legislative oversight.
Thank you for your hard work on behalf of the American people. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me."
