Prosecutors say the settlements resolve allegations of an 'organized scheme to wrongfully retain federal funds.'
Dignity Health and Tenet Healthcare Corporation subsidiaries will pay California and the federal government a combined $22.5 million to settle separate false claims allegations made for Medi-Cal "enhanced adult services," state and federal prosecutors announced.
Named in the settlement were Dignity Health's three hospitals and one clinic in Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County and Tenet subsidiaries Twin Cities Community Hospital and Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo.
Prosecutors say the settlements resolve allegations that Dignity, Twin Cities, and Sierra Vista ran an "organized scheme to wrongfully retain federal funds" from Medi-Cal's Adult Expansion program. California will get $2.25 million of the settlement.
The California Department of Health Care Services requires a California county organized health system to spend at least 85% of the funds it received for the Adult Expansion population on "allowed medical expenses." If not, they provider was required to pay back to the state the difference between 85% and what it spent. California, in turn, was required to return that amount to the federal government.
The two settlements resolve allegations that Dignity, Twin Cities and Sierra Vista knowingly submitted false claims to Medi-Cal for "enhanced services" provided to the expansion patients between Feb. 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, and that Twin Cities and Sierra Vista purportedly provided to such patients between Jan. 1, 2014, and April 30, 2015, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors say the payments were not "allowed medical expenses" permissible under the contract; were pre-determined amounts that did not reflect the fair market value of any enhanced services provided; and were duplicative of services already required.
"Every day, Medi-Cal provides support for Californians in need of essential healthcare, and when companies take advantage of this system at the expense of patients, they must be held accountable," says California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Dignity will pay $13.5 million to the United States and $1.5 million to California, and Twin Cities and Sierra Vista will pay $6.75 million to the United States and $750,000 to California.
"These healthcare providers siphoned critical Medicaid funding for their own gain instead of using it to provide health care services to patients most in need," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California says. "These major settlements demonstrate our commitment to hold accountable healthcare providers that seek to exploit the Medicaid program and harm the American taxpayer."
The settlements were brought under the whistleblower provisions of the California False Claims Act by Julio Bordas, the former medical director of CenCal, which entitles him to 10% of the recovery – at federal cost – in cases involving allegations of losses to the Medicaid program.
Dignity Responds
Dignity issued the following statment on the settlement:
"On Dec. 7, the Department of Justice issued a press release announcing a settlement regarding alleged improper Medi-Cal claims submitted over seven years ago in connection with the Medicaid Adult Expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. During the period Dignity Health d/b/a Marian Regional Medical Center and French Hospital Medical Center, provided critically necessary population health management, patient navigation, homeless outreach, and health education programs and related services to this newly-eligible adult Medi-Cal population, in their spoken languages, in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties.
Dignity Health provided these services in accordance with a previously established program and agreement and in addition to the underlying services agreements between the providers and co-defendant Santa Barbara San Luis Obispo Regional Health Authority (d/b/a CenCal Health), the county organized health system responsible for administering the Medi-Cal program in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. Under the program, Dignity Health submitted to CenCal Health detailed monthly reconciliation statements and annual reports, and was paid by CenCal in accordance with the agreements.
As such, Dignity Health received fair market value compensation from CenCal for services actually provided to this vulnerable population, and maintains all reimbursements were properly received.
Dignity Health entered into the settlement agreement with the United States and State of California to resolve the matter without the expense of litigation, and without admitting any liability."
Tenet Responds
Tenet Healthcare Corporation issued the following statement:
"We stand behind the efforts of our team to serve the Medi-Cal population in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, California. Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center and Twin Cities Community Hospital strongly deny the allegations but resolved this matter to avoid the expense and distraction of further litigation. The hospitals used the Medi-Cal funds received from CenCal Health to serve Medi-Cal beneficiaries as intended.
Sierra Vista and Twin Cities remain committed to full compliance with all California and federal healthcare program requirements. Our hospitals and dedicated care teams remain committed to providing high quality care to Medi-Cal patients in our community."
Lawmakers are examining strategies drugmakers use to shield billions of dollars in profits from U.S. corporate taxes.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden this week made a final request to Amgen Inc. to "voluntarily" provide information about the drugmaker's tax-avoidance schemes that funneled $24 billion in U.S. sales to offshore havens in Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
The Oregon Democrat, in a Dec. 8 letter to Amgen CEO Robert Bradway, says "there appears to be a substantial discrepancy between where Amgen generates the vast majority of its prescription drug sales and where Amgen books profits from those drug sales for tax purposes."
Wyden says the Thousand Oaks, CA-based company, in its Sept. 16 response to the committee's August query, "declined to provide any specific information related to Amgen's pre-tax earnings, profit margins and tax paid in the United States."
"The response also failed to answer questions regarding where Amgen reports income for tax purposes, including how much of Amgen's taxable income is reported by offshore subsidiaries," Wyden says, adding that Amgen also refused to provide specific information related to pre-tax earnings, profit margins, and taxes paid in the United States.
The Senate Finance Committee is examining strategies Amgen and other drugmakers use to avoid billions of dollars in taxes generated by sales in the United States, including Amgen's pricy arthritis drug Enbrel, for which the drug maker charges about $8,700 a month.
Wyden says Amgen uses the global intangible low-tax income (GILTI) schedule to declare income from Enbrel and other drugs that "are overwhelmingly booked in jurisdiction treated as foreign for tax purposes, including Puerto Rico."
Under GILTI, foreign income is either fully exempt from taxes, or taxed at 10.5%, compared with the U.S. corporate tax rate of 21%.
Internal Revenue Service filings show that U.S. sales accounted for $18.2 billion of Amgen's sales in 2021, about 70% of its total sales, but reported only $1.85 billion in pre-tax income in the United States. In that same year, Amgen reported international pre-tax income of more than $4.8 billion on $7.7 billion in international sales. The IRS also claims that Amgen shifted nearly $24 billion in income to subsidiaries in Puerto Rico to avoid paying billions of dollars in federal taxes on U.S. prescription drug sales.
Wyden says in his letter that he was denied "country-specific information related to Amgen's pre-tax earnings, profit margins, employee headcount and tax paid for tax years 2018 - 2021."
"This included copies of Amgen's IRS form 8975, an annual country-by-country tax reporting required for large corporations with over $850 million in annual income. I also requested information related to Amgen's taxable income for years 2018 – 2021, including how much of Amgen's taxable income was reported by controlled foreign corporations," Wyden says in the letter.
"Unfortunately, Amgen declined to provide the committee this information, choosing to keep secret how much of its profits are reported by offshore subsidiaries that are treated as foreign for tax purposes."
"It is critical to understand how Amgen, a multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in the U.S. with annual sales of $26 billion primarily made to U.S. customers, paid a lower tax rate than a postal service worker or a preschool teacher."
Amgen did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday from HealthLeaders.
Consumers are willing to make the transition to retail settings in exchange for lower costs and better outcomes.
Nearly two-thirds of 1,006 adults (61%) in an online poll envision using primary care services at pharmacies, retail clinics and/or pharmacy clinics instead of going to a primary care physician.
The online survey, released Wednesday by Wolters Kluwer, shows that consumers are willing to make the transition to retail settings in exchange for lower costs and better outcomes.
However, the enthusiasm is generational, with 70% of Millennials, 66% of Gen Z and 65% of Gen X anticipating this transition, as opposed to only 43% of Baby Boomers or older Americans.
"Americans made it clear: it’s time for healthcare to get ready for big changes. Gen Z and Millennials are thinking differently about the who and where of healthcare and medication prescribing," says Peter Bonis, MD, CMO, Wolters Kluwer, Health.
The survey found that:
At least half of consumers see potential savings on medical expenses as an incentive to look beyond solely physician-credentialed providers.
Consumers would trust pharmacists (56%), nurse practitioners (55%) and physician assistants (50%) to provide healthcare and prescriptions if it meant lower costs.
Women are 20% more likely than men to trust a nurse practitioner (65% vs. 45%) and 9% more likely to trust a physician assistant (55% vs. 46%).
Three-quarters of Americans (72%) would be open to having medications prescribed by a specially-trained pharmacist instead of a doctor.
Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X are much more open (78%, 80%, and 74%) than Baby Boomers and older Americans (Boomers+) (58%).
More than 70% of consumers say they’d provide a blood sample for genomic analysis if it meant that they’d receive more personalized medical care.
Half of consumers worry about getting the wrong dosage, the wrong medication or the wrong instructions (47%).
Unknown drug interactions worry 65% or consumers, who are concerned that potentially adverse effects won’t be identified when the prescription is issued.
The vast majority (97%) of consumers say pharmacists should be responsible for telling them about the safety of their medications.
Half of Americans (51%) worry about accessing prescriptions from understaffed pharmacies. Gen Z and Millennials are even more likely (59% and 60%) to say they’re worried about pharmacy staffing gaps than Gen X and Boomers+ (44% and 38%).
More than two-thirds (68%) of consumers believe that their genomic information could influence their providers’ decisions about what medicines to prescribe.
Nurse leaders are also pushing to extend the relaxed care access policies issued during the COVID-19 PHE through at least 2024.
The American Nurses Association has launched a write-in campaign, urging stakeholders to contact their representatives in a lame-duck Congress and press them to enact before year's end five bills promoting the nation's nursing workforce.
"We know that personalized letters have an even greater impact – if this legislation will directly impact your work or the work of a nurse you know, please consider sharing your story in the note to Congress," the ANA says in its appeal to members.
"Throughout the last two years, Congress has seen firsthand how vital nurses are to the healthcare landscape," the ANA mass email states. "The legislative asks below represent key legislation supporting our nation's nursing workforce by providing stability, safety, and mental well-being for nurses and removing barriers to care faced by nurses and the patients they serve."
The bills supported by the ANA include:
R. 1195/S. 4182, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, which would require Occupational Safety and Health Administration to develop and enforce standards for healthcare and social service employers that will hold them accountable for protecting their employees from workplace violence.
"This issue has been a long-standing concern prior to the pandemic and recent increases in instances of workplace violence have shown why passage of this legislation is so critical," ANA says.
R. 8812, the Improving Access and Care to Nurses (I CAN) Act, which would permanently remove care and access barriers to Advanced Practice Registered Nurses under Medicare and Medicaid.
R. 851/S. 246, the Future Advancement of Academic Nursing (FAAN) Act, which would fund nurse education programs and increase the nurse faculty.
R. 6087, the Improving Access to Workers' Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act, which would amend the Federal Employees' Compensation Act to authorize NPs to certify disabilities and oversee treatment for injured federal workers.
R. 7666, the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2021. ANA wants the bill to include H.R. 1384, the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act, which would eliminate the duplicative and burdensome requirement that providers, including APRNs, apply for a Drug Enforcement Administration waiver to dispense buprenorphine.
The ANA is also pushing Congress to extend the relaxed policies issued during the COVID-19 public health emergency through at least 2024 and work with the Biden Administration to make them permanent.
"In particular, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services waivers, removing scope of practice barriers for APRNs and expanding the use of and payment for services provided through telehealth technologies," ANA says. "All of which have demonstrated a positive impact on the health care delivery system for nearly three years."
In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the AGs say patient privacy has become a priority since the SCOTUS Dobbs decision.
A coalition of attorneys general from 10 states is urging Cupertino, CA-based Apple to vouch for the security of consumers' reproductive health information disclosed in third-party apps.
In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the AGs – nine Democrats and Vermont Republican AG Susanne R. Young – say that patient privacy has become a priority since the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision this year that overturned Roe V. Wade. Dobbs precipitated a barrage of rigorous antiabortion laws, primarily in more than a dozen Republican-controlled states.
The AGs in their letter to Cook reminded him that "Apple has long promoted privacy as one of its "core values," and that third-party apps' collecting users' search histories, location, and health data and histories could be "weaponized" by law enforcement, private entities, or individuals to target women seeking or providing abortions or other reproductive healthcare.
The AGs note that Apple has adopted rigorous privacy and security measures; for example, Apple ensures that Apple Health data — including reproductive data — is automatically encrypted. The company also has privacy controls that allow consumers to limit apps' access to certain sensitive information and requires apps to request permissions only when needed to provide service.
"Given Apple's consistent promotion of its commitment to privacy, consumers reasonably expect the same from the third-party apps that Apple allows on the App Store," the AGs say in the letter.
"However, third-party apps that sync with Apple Health, as well as apps that independently collect reproductive health data from consumers, frequently fail to meet these same standards."
Specifically, the AGs want Apple to require third-party app developers to certify that their privacy policies will:
Delete nonessential data, including location history, search history, and other data of consumers who may be seeking or helping to provide an abortion;
Provide clear and conspicuous warnings of the potential for apps to disclose to third parties user data related to reproductive healthcare, and may do so only when required by a valid subpoena, search warrant, or court order;
Implement the same or better privacy standards for App Store apps that collect consumers' reproductive health data, or that sync with user data stored on Apple devices.
In a media release accompanying the letter, California Attorney General Rob Bonta says that "in the wake of the Dobbs ruling, our fight to protect reproductive freedom has never been more crucial."
"We urge Apple to heed our call and protect their users from attempts to regulate their bodies and curtail their freedom by improving consumer protections for third-party apps in the App Store," Bonta says.
Researchers urge the transplant community not to 'squander' the opportunity to harvest organs during mass rallies.
With gallows humor, clinicians often refer to motorcycles as "donorcycles."
A new study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that the epithet is well founded, and the authors of the study say the transplant community should not "squander" the opportunity to harvest life-saving organs during mass motorcycle rallies.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital found that regions where the nation's seven largest motorcycle rallies were held between 2005 and 2021 saw 21% more organ donors per day, on average, and 26% more transplant recipients per day, on average, during these events, compared with days just before and after the rallies.
"The spikes in organ donations and transplantations that we found in our analysis are disturbing, even if not entirely surprising, because they signal a systemic failure to avoid preventable deaths, which is a tragedy," says study first author David Cron, MD, HMS clinical fellow in surgery at Mass General. "There is a clear need for better safety protocols around such events."
Big motorcycle rallies attract hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts, and earlier studies have shown that these events are accompanied by increases in traumatic injuries and deaths from motor-vehicle crashes.
Noting that they found no difference in the quality of organs donated due to clinical or demographic differences in donors during rallies, the researchers are urging transplant stakeholders to take note.
"It is important for transplant communities in places where these events are held to be aware of the potential for increased organ donors during those periods," Cron says. "Organ donation is often called the gift of life, and we should make sure that we do not squander it and can turn any of these tragic deaths into a chance to potentially save other lives."
Using data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, researchers analyzed records from 10,798 organ donors and 35,329 recipients in the regions where the featured motorcycle rallies take place. During the rallies, there were 406 organ donors and 1,400 transplant recipients in regions near the events. During the four weeks before and after the rallies, there were 2,332 organ donors and 7,714 transplant recipients in those locations.
Even with the spike in donated organs, the researchers found that the waiting times for transplant recipients were largely unchanged whether there was a rally event or not, which they say indicates "indicates that the increase in the number of organs available was not enough to relieve the critical shortage of donor organs that the nation faces, even for a brief period."
The seven motorcycle rallies in the study each draw more than 200,000 visitors over the course of several days. Daytona Bike Week in Florida and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota are 10-day events that each draw 500,000 visitors.
Cron says the data used in the research was not detailed enough to determine whether the donors died in motorcycle crashes or in passenger vehicles.
The votes are still being counted and are expected to be finalized in early December.
More than 21,000 unionized nurses at 21 Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California who were poised to strike are instead voting on a four-year contract with the mega-health system.
The tentative contract, comes after months of fraught negotiations and includes pay raises of 22½% over the next four years, was brokered earlier this month, averting a November 21 two-day strike that had been authorized by rank and file.
While the votes are still being counted and are expected to be finalized in early December, leadership at KP and the California Nurses Association / National Nurses United act like it already passed, with each side declaring victory.
"We not only won the biggest annual raises in 20 years, but we have also added more than 2,000 positions across our Northern California facilities," says CNA President Cathy Kennedy, an RN in the neonatal ICU at Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center. "This will ensure safe staffing and better patient care."
KP says the new agreement "is driven by the changing economy, including inflation, significant changes in the marketplace and our commitment to providing our employees with excellent pay and benefits to attract and retain the best nurses."
The contract includes:
Health and safety provisions to ensure nurses get the highest level of personal protective equipment, including the requirement to maintain a three-month stockpile of PPE, screening for infectious disease, and having the same PPE when caring for patients who are confirmed or suspected of having COVID.
Comprehensive workplace violence prevention provisions, including expanding workplace violence prevention plans to all sites; an investigation process for incidents of workplace violence, and trauma counseling for nurses.
More than 2,000 new RNs and NPs, including 1,200 graduate positions, 400 in specialty training, 300 float pool nurses, 80 acute reentry nurses, 50 NPs, and 80 outpatient positions.
Increased tuition reimbursement for education.
Pay hikes and health benefits upgrades to retain and recruit experienced nurses, including no takeaways for pensions or retiree health.
Equity and inclusion provisions, including the creation of a new regional Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee to address systemic racism within the healthcare system.
Patients first language, including agreement that healthcare is a human right, promoting culturally competent care, and expanding workforce diversity.
Registered nurses at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (LAMC) voted yesterday overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying a new five-year contract, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU). CNA/NNU represents 1,000 nurses at Kaiser Permanente LAMC.
LA Nurses Ratify New Contract
In a seperate deal, 1,000 nurses at KP Los Angeles Medical Center voted "overwhelmingly" to ratify a new five-year contract, ending more than one year of negotiations and avoiding a two-day strike, also scheduled to begin Nov. 21, CNA/NNU says.
"We fought for 14 months to get this new contract and we are happy that we won an agreement that will let us recruit and retain nurses," says Tinny Abogado, RN, KPLAMC. "This means that we can give our patients the care they deserve. It was also important that our new contract include health and safety protections for nurses and patients and a commitment to address systemic racism in healthcare."
The waiver was included in the 2020 CARES Act but will expire on December 31 if lawmakers don't act.
More than 350 stakeholders representing major employer, patient, provider, and payer groups are urging a lame-duck Congress to extend into 2023 a waiver allowing employers to cover telehealth services for their employees before they spend down their deductible.
The waiver, which loosens rules for employees’ pre-tax contributions to health savings accounts, was included in the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, but will expire on December 31.
Stakeholders have asked Congress to extend the waiver before the end of 2022, arguing in their letter to House and Senate leaders that the safe harbor improves care access for workers who otherwise would have avoided telehealth because of out-of-pocket expenses.
"Without Congressional action, employers will be required to charge employees more to access telehealth services, creating a barrier to care, including mental health treatment," the letter states. "Unfortunately, more Americans need access to affordable mental and behavioral health services, not less."
The letter urges Congressional leaders to expedite passage of the Telehealth Expansion Act of 2021, which has bicameral, bipartisan support.
"The support for affordable telehealth and telemental health is strong. Allowing employers and health plans to continue offering these important services pre-deductible improves affordability and expands access," the letter says.
Exponential Growth
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in massive growth for telehealth with both government- and employer-sponsored health plans.
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study showed a 63-fold increase in Medicare fee-for-service telehealth use, vaulting from approximately 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million in 2020, and a 32-fold increase in telemental health during the pandemic.
An Employee Benefit Research Institute survey found that 96% of employer respondents had adopted pre-deductible coverage for telehealth services as a result of the CARES Act waiver, with more than three-quarters of employers hoping the waiver will become permanent.
The waiver expired on January 1, 2022, but Congress re-instated and extended it in late March under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022. The Alliance for Connected Care, also a signatory, noted that the lapsed waiver between January 1, 2022 – March 31, 2022 "led to confusion and uncertainty for patients and employers."
More than 67 million people have HSAs, according to the Alliance for Connected Care, a signatory of the letter, and 78% of them have annual household incomes below $100,000. America’s Health Insurance Plans, also a signatory, says that 40% of the 180 million Americans with employer-sponsored insurance are covered by an HDHP-HSA plan, with the vast majority of plans covering pre-deductible telehealth services.
The California Health Care Foundation examines new law in 2023 that creates a route for NPs to practice independently.
Public health stakeholders must rally behind nurse practitioners as a critical component of expanding healthcare access in the state, the California Health Care Foundation says.
The foundation has published an issues brief on AB 890, which goes into effect in 2023, and which creates a route for NPs to practice independently.
“AB 890 presents opportunities to increase access to healthcare for Californians, especially those served in the safety net and those who live in rural and underserved areas,” CHCF says in the brief. "Nurse practitioners can hasten the change by embracing new practice models, seizing opportunities within the changing healthcare funding and delivery systems, and sharpening their business acumen.
Promote understanding of what NPs provide and reach out to community leaders and the public about NPs role in improving care access.
Remove remaining practice barriers, that include hospital policies limiting NP privileges and leadership roles, NP practices not being allowed to apply for rural health clinic designation, NPs not being able to be lab directors offering services in their own clinics, and telehealth regulations.
Support nurse-managed health centers that are not affiliated with academic health centers but which could affiliate with federally qualified health centers for primary care.
Provide education and supports for NPs, including “business knowledge and skills to find funding and run their own businesses or expand practices within institutions. NPs need the skills to manage complex institutional, financial, billing, compliance, human resources, and marketing issues.
"NPs, clinic and healthcare system leaders, policymakers, safety-net providers, and communities must be proactive in shaping attitudes and policies that impact their practice, and addressing the resistance of some physician organizations seeking to restrict any advancement of NP practice," the brief says.
"To accomplish this, NPs will need the active involvement of supportive physicians, other healthcare leaders, and policymakers to attest to the safety and quality of NP practice. They will also need the advocacy of their patients, sharing their experience of care with families and friends in the community."
The healthcare system must find a way to provide the access to training for tens of thousands of would-be nurses.
An aging and retiring nurse workforce, burnout from the pandemic, and a rapidly greying Baby Boomer population have created a trifecta of staffing challenges across the healthcare space, but one nurse leader has some suggestions.
"We have a turnover problem," says Kenneth R. White, PhD, APRN, FACHE, FAAN, president of the American Academy of Nursing and School of Nursing Dean at the MGH Institute of Health Professions.
"To add more nurses is only part of the equation. We need to make sure we learn more about how we can support nurses, keep the bedside and make sure that they're in a safe and supportive culture," he says.
White concedes that "fixing the nursing shortage is very complicated," but he believes there are pain points that can be addressed.
"One is financial incentives," he says. "Loan repayment. Loan remission, scholarships in return for work commitment once (nurses) graduate. It's difficult to give up employment for one or two years to go back to school to be a nurse and pay very high tuitions in many cases. We need to ease that financial burden."
Wannabes
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 275,000 new nurses will be needed by 2030. However, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported that last year nursing schools turned away more than 90,000 qualified applicants owing to a lack of educators or clinical placements.
White says the healthcare system must find a way to provide the access to training for tens of thousands of would-be nurses.
"Applicants are being turned away for two reasons: 1) there's a shortage in nurse educators across the country and 2) nursing programs can't place all the students in clinical learning experiences," White says. "If you can't guarantee nursing students will learn in a hospital or community setting, there's no sense in admitting them because they won't receive the hands-on experience they need to graduate and provide patient care."
White says there are two ways to alleviate that conundrum.
"One is to incentivize those who can teach nurses and mentor them. Because salaries went up during the pandemic, nurse educators oftentimes make more money as a staff nurse than they can being a nurse educator," he says. "We need to right-size that to make sure our nurse educators are rewarded for the great work they do.
"Secondly, the government can help. The Department of Labor recently announced a program calling for schools and clinical partners to attract a more diverse nursing student workforce, and more incentives for hospitals to take on students in a clinical setting," White says, adding that "the program's $80 million is a great start but I do think we need much more than that."
"We need policymakers and private funders to take a very close look at what needs to be done to fund or reimburse hospitals and health systems for nursing education," he says.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
In addition, White says it is imperative that hospitals and other clinical settings provide new nurses with support, resources and respect.
"Nurses graduating now - if they're not feeling respected and supported in that first year or two, they'll leave," he says. "They don't have the same commitment that our baby boom nurses had to work in one place for their entire career. For them to leave, that only exacerbates the problem."
"So, we need to understand what nurses need to feel valued and respected in order to give the very best care for their patients."
