Drew Zimmerman
QUINCY — U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, visited the Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing and Health Sciences on Wednesday to discuss a bipartisan bill that seeks to prevent funding cuts to hospital-based nursing programs.
Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that it plans to recoup funds that were paid over the last 10 years to the 120 hospital-based nursing and allied health programs in the country. The recuperation of these funds could lead to a loss of 70% of past payments and threaten some programs with closures.
LaHood’s bill aims to prohibit CMS from recouping the past funds that were issued.
“We want to make sure that the money that goes to our nursing schools continues to flow uninterrupted and again being here today helps to solidify that and gives me further evidence when I go back to Washington D.C. next Monday to push for this,” LaHood said.
Brenda Beshears, president and CEO of Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing and Health Sciences, said about 80% of students last year stayed in Blessing’s health system, which showed that their clinical experience was so positive that they wanted to stay local.
“And it speaks really highly of our health system and the hospital to also take these young people under their wings, mentor them, teach them and ensure that they’re really good practitioners when they walk out,” Beshears said.
She added that nearly 50% of her faculty when through Blessing-Rieman’s undergrad program for their baccalaureate and then returned for a master’s degree program before entering PhD programs.
“It’s sort of a perpetual type of education endeavor that these monies are supporting,” Beshears said.
Medicare provides for the nation’s health care workforce to be educated and trained through direct graduate medical education payments.
When he returns to Washington D.C., LaHood said it will be important to tell legislators about the impact CMS’ attempts to claw back from nursing schools, through no fault of the institutions themselves, will be to nurses and the medical community.
“If you look at how this money is spent, it is money well spent by the federal taxpayer then it goes to all the things I mentioned earlier on supporting nurses, supporting this industry and the four schools in my district,” LaHood said.
LaHood added there also is a Senate companion bill regarding this issue.
