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Today, Representatives Lynn Jenkins (R-KS), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), and Charlie Rangel (D-NY) introduced the MEND Act. This legislation would protect hospital based-nursing programs across the United States as they face conflicting regulatory requirements from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and their accreditation bodies.

“At a time when our country is facing a shortage of nurses, we must ensure that our hospital-based nursing schools – like the partnership between Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center Campus and the Baker University School of Nursing in Topeka, Kansas – can continue to provide a world-class education for nursing professionals,” said Congresswoman Jenkins. “Hospital-based nursing schools are extremely valuable and give students real world experience to better serve our community. This bipartisan, sensible legislation is critical for the future of our healthcare workforce and I look forward to working with Representatives” Tonko, Kinzinger, and Rangel to quickly pass this bill in the House.”  

“With this bill, we have an immediate opportunity to work in a bipartisan fashion so that hospital-based nursing schools nationwide aren’t faced with the choice between accreditation and maintaining critical federal funding. I look forward to working with Representatives Jenkins, Kinzinger, and Rangel to advance this important legislation,” said Congressman Tonko. “Moving forward, I hope to see more efforts from Congress that make access to high quality educational opportunities in health care – and every job sector – more available.”

“With thousands of Illinoisans still struggling to make ends meet, we need to be doing all we can to help train job-seekers for the jobs of today and tomorrow,” said Congressman Kinzinger. “Nursing is the nation's largest health care profession with over 2.6 million registered nurses serving their communities in hospitals and other settings nationwide, with more than 1.2 million additional RNs expected to be needed by 2020. We must promote and pass policies like the bipartisan MEND Act to ensure that hospital-based nursing programs like the Saint Anthony College of Nursing in Rockford can continue to prepare a robust nursing workforce and help more people in Illinois and around the country get the skills demanded by employers in this growing field.”

"I'm proud to support this critical bill that would help train the most highly-qualified nurses to care for our communities. This is a commonsense, bipartisan bill that will ensure our nation's preparedness to meet the various medical challenges and public health threats of tomorrow," said Congressman Rangel.

The MEND Act:

The MEND Act has no cost and allows hospital-based nursing programs to meet the strict and ever-evolving standards of national accreditation bodies by updating CMS regulations to allow hospital-based nursing programs to both retain their accreditation and receive Medicare funding. By removing the unnecessary conflict that these schools face from CMS, the accreditation industry’s push for higher quality and accountability from all educational institutions can continue to be implemented without the unintended consequences that currently face these hospital-based nursing schools.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, our nation will face a shortage of 1.2 million nurses by 2020.

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