Increasing Nurses’ Participation in Legislative Policymaking - Part 4 (FON 5.5)

Adequate Funding for Public Health - FON Recommendation (5.5)

Expert: Catherine Dodd, Former Chief of Staff to Nancy Pelosi, Former Presidential Appointee to U.S. Health and Human Services, and Former Director of the San Francisco Health Service System.

---

Recommendation Summary: Ensure adequate funding for school and public health nursing by:

• Implementing state policies that allow school nurses to bill Medicaid and supporting schools, particularly rural schools, in meeting documentation requirements;
• Reimbursing school nursing services that include collaboration with clinical and community health care providers;
• Promoting new ways of financing public health to address SDOH in the community (e.g., having federal, state, and local leaders, along with public health departments and organizations, partner with payers, health systems, and accountable health communities, and blend or braid multiple funding sources);
• Creating funding mechanisms and joint accountability metrics for the efforts of the health, public health, and social sectors to address SDOH and advance health equity that align incentives and behavior across the various stakeholders, including school health;
• Leveraging nonprofit hospital community benefit requirements to create partnerships with and among school and public health nursing, primary care organizations and other social sectors; and
• Using pay scales for public health nurses that are competitive with those for nursing positions in other health care organizations and sectors, and that provide equal pay when the services provided (e.g., immunizations) are the same.

---

Why This Project: Nurses are consistently absent in the rooms where policymaking discussions are being held. Yet, the Future of Nursing Report 2020-2030 not only provides recommendations for where nurses can enter policymaking discussions but also specifically calls to nurses' unique attributes that make them especially equipped to advance these issues.

ANA\California is honored to support our member, Brooke Newman, in her journey to achieve her DNP and this important policy forum.