FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/May 14, 1998 CONTACT:Michael Stewart [202/651-7048];Michelle Slattery [202/651-7027]; http://www.nursingworld.org ANA Joins Members of Congress in Push for Legislative Action to Secure Patient ProtectionsWashington, DC -- On May 14, ANA Interim Executive Director Argene Carswell, JD, RN, joined U.S. House of Representatives Health Care Task Force Co-Chairs Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), as well as other members of Congress, to urge the Republican leadership of Congress to stop blocking managed care reform legislation. A key focus of their call to legislative action was the unmet needs of children. Carswell said, "Some parents of families covered by managed care are afraid to call '911' for their children in the middle of the night, lest they be found in violation of their plans' complex procedures. Meanwhile the plans do little or nothing to promote pediatric wellness and injury prevention. Such situations and the outrages against women I highlighted just yesterday at a press conference here at the Capitol are the impetus behind policymakers' push to remove the roadblocks and to pass managed care reform." The previous day (May 13), Carswell had joined Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to urge passage of the Patients Bill of Rights Act of 1998. Kennedy and Carswell called particular attention to another vulnerable sector of the U.S. patient population -- women. In excoriating managed care plans for the many ways they fail to meet women's needs, Carswell cited as an example requirements that women undergo mastectomies as outpatient procedures, calling such practices "unconscionable." ### The American Nurses Association is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.6 million registered urses through its 53 constituent associations. ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the work place, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
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