State Rep Update

The 2021 AANP State Award Nominations are OPEN! 

The nomination process has opened for the prestigious 2021 American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) Award for Clinical Excellence and for Advocacy Excellence.

As a reminder, congratulations are in order for our 2020 recipients.  Our Clinical Excellence Award recipient for 2020 is Alicia Baker and the recipient for our Advocacy Excellence Award is Rachel Minahan.  Although the AANP National Conference was not held this June due to the pandemic, both of our recipients will be honored at our September 10th NPADC Zoom Membership meeting. They will also be honored at the 2021 AANP National Conference.  Please be sure to click on the link below to view the DC recipients, we are so very proud of you!

The NP State Award for Excellence is given to an individual NP in each state who has demonstrated excellence in clinical practice. The NP Advocate State Award for Excellence is given annually to an individual in each state who has made a significant contribution toward increasing awareness and recognition of NPs.  The Advocacy award nomination can include but is not limited to Nurse Practitioners.  Past examples include other clinicians, legislators, educators, preceptors and/or mentors. The awardees will be recognized at the AANP National Conference, the week of June 15th in Anaheim, CA.

Nominators must be current AANP members; however, nominees do not have to be AANP members to be nominated for a State Award for Excellence.

Please consider nominating a peer and let us celebrate each other for the fantastic job we do every day of the year.   Celebrate the 2020 award recipients and nominate an exceptional colleague for the 2021 awards – all from one location. 

CMS/COVID NEWS:

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are announcing that payment is available to physicians and health care providers to counsel patients, at the time of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing, about the importance of self-isolation after they are tested and prior to the onset of symptoms.

CMS will use existing evaluation and management (E/M) payment codes to reimburse providers who are eligible to bill CMS for counseling services no matter where a test is administered, including doctor’s offices, urgent care clinics, hospitals and community drive-thru or pharmacy testing sites.

Further information and resource links are available in the Counseling Check List PDF here:  https://www.cms.gov/files/document/counseling-checklist.pdf

It is highly recommended that you receive the email updates from CMS.  We should all be knowledgeable if not comfortable in discussing Quality Payment Programs (QPPS), including Merit Based Incentive Payment Systems (MIPS) and Merit Based Value Pathways (MVPS). It is easy to sign on for updates and  further education at: https://www.cms.gov/

Local News:

• Thank you to Laura Worby, Legislative Committee, for staying on top the local DC Council Budget for 2021 (as announced on our website July 27th).  Due to her vigilance, the DC Council was inundated with emails and phone calls regarding the DC Telehealth Reimbursement Act of 2021. NPADC joined with the DC Primary Care Association and successfully advocated to extend reimbursement for audio-only telehealth, which had been allowed for the first time due to the pandemic, and will now be covered through 2021.  
• The DC Board of Elections (BOE) will send every DC registered voter a mail in ballot for the November 3rd General Election. You do NOT need to request an Absentee Ballot. Please ensure you are registered to Vote! https://www.dcboe.org/

Memberships:

We encourage everyone to continue to support and participate in our local Nurse Practitioner Association of DC (NPADC) as well as our national American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) organization.  Both of these organizations advocate to help, protect and improve our profession. If you have any questions about these organizations, please contact us via this website.

NPADC:   https://npadc.enpnetwork.com/

 AANP:  https://www.aanp.org/