Health Care News Bytes

On December 19, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a memorandum outlining its new procedures in processing J-1 visa waiver cases.   

All exceptional hardship and persecution based waiver cases are now being forwarded to the California Service Center .  Applicants for waivers based on these grounds should continue to be files with the service center with jurisdiction over their state of residence.  

Waiver cases based on a Letter of No Objection, a request by an interested government agency or a request from a State Department of Health (Conrad State 30) are being electronically transmitted from the State Department to the USCIS Vermont Service Center .  

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The President has signed the H-2C Nurse Visa Extension Bill, which extends for three years changes to the requirements for admission of nonimmigrant nurses in health professional shortage areas made by the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999.  The text of the bill can be found at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:h1285enr.txt.pdf.  

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On January 22, 2007, President Bush signed into law Public Law 109-477, which reauthorizes the Conrad State 30 Visa Waiver Program until June 1, 2008.  

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Representative Rush Holt (NJ) reintroduced the Nursing School Capacity Act (H.R. 677) on January 24, 2007.  This bill would allow for the Institute of Medicine to study the constraints experienced by nursing programs in admitting and graduating enough nurses to fill the workforce.  

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Newsweek Magazine recently described the nurse retention program instituted by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Shadyside (UPMC).  UPMC is one of ten  hospitals that participate in the program, known as Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB), by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.  In each of these ten hospitals, nurse satisfaction has increased and the turnover in nurses has decreased.  

TCAB aims to increase nurse retention through improvements in the nursing system, such as the promotion of teamwork.  As part of TCAB, UPMC holds brainstorming sessions with its staff and patients’ family members to identify problems and devise solutions.  

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The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) has announced that the NCLEX Examination will now also be offered in Manila , Philippines .  NCSBN has not yet set an implementation date for the exam.  

Currently, the exam is offered abroad in the following locations: London, England; Seoul, South Korea; Hong Kong; Sydney, Australia; Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, Canada; Frankfurt, Germany; Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai, India; Mexico City, Mexico; Taipei, Taiwan; and Chiyoda-ku and Yokohama, Japan.  

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On February 15, 2007, Senator Norm Coleman (MN) revealed his comprehensive rural health legislative agenda.  His plan is comprised of these seven bills:

1)     Rural Health Services Preservation Act - this bill will ensure that Critical
Access Hospitals are reimbursed at a rate that allows them to cover the
costs of the important services they offer.

2)     Critical Access to Health Information Technology Act - legislation to help rural hospitals compete for federal health technology grants.

3)     Remote Monitoring Access Act – to create a new benefit category for remote patient management services in the Medicare physician fee schedule.

4)     Rural Critical Access Hospital Reconstruction and Rehabilitation - this legislation will provide $1.6 billion allocated over five years for rural Critical Access Hospitals across the country.

5)     Cass County Critical Access Hospital - this legislation will enable
the City of Walker, Minnesota to build a Critical Access Hospital .

6)     Rural Access to Mental Health and Wellness for Children and Seniors Act - this
legislation will establish federal grants to provide assistance to rural
schools, hospitals, and communities to conduct collaborative efforts to
secure a system to improve access to mental healthcare for youth, seniors,
and families, and to increase access of elementary and secondary students to
mental health services in rural areas by operating a mobile health services
program and enhancing tele-mental health initiatives.

7)     Rural Nursing Promotion Act – to create the Nurse Distance
Education Pilot Program, an online program giving students in rural areas
access to nursing education. The program will also encourage schools to expand their current nursing programs or create new programs. It will also require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to report to Congress possible solutions to the nursing and physical therapy shortage. Finally, this bill will add flexibility to allow more foreign  nurses and physical therapists to help fill the current shortage in rural America .

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk.