IV

107TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. CON. RES. 509

Expressing the sense of the Congress that there should be established an

annual National Visiting Nurse Associations Week.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OCTOBER 10, 2002

Mr. MARKEY (for himself and Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania) submitted the

following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on

Government Reform

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress that there should be

established an annual National Visiting Nurse Associations Week.

Whereas visiting nurse associations (VNAs) are nonprofit

home health agencies that, for over 120 years, have been

united in their mission to provide cost-effective and compassionate home and community-based health care to individuals, regardless of the individuals’ condition or ability to pay for services;

Whereas there are more than 500 visiting nurse associations,

which employ more than 90,000 clinicians, provide health

care to more than 4,000,000 people each year, and provide a critical safety net in communities by developing a
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network of community support services that enable individuals to live independently at home;

Whereas visiting nurse associations have historically served as

primary public health care providers in their communities, and are today one of the largest providers of mass

immunizations in the medicare program (delivering over

2,500,000 influenza immunizations annually);

Whereas visiting nurse associations are often the home health

providers of last resort, serving the most chronic of conditions (such as congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, AIDS, and quadriplegia) and individuals with the least ability to pay for services (more

than 50 percent of all medicaid home health admissions

are by visiting nurse associations);

Whereas any visiting nurse association budget surplus is reinvested in supporting the association’s mission through

services, including charity care, adult day care centers,

wellness clinics, Meals-on-Wheels, and immunization programs;

Whereas visiting nurse associations and other nonprofit home

health agencies care for the highest percentage of terminally ill and bedridden patients;

Whereas thousands of visiting nurse association volunteers

across the Nation devote time serving as individual agency board members, raising funds, visiting patients in

their homes, assisting in wellness clinics, and delivering

meals to patients; and

Whereas the establishment of an annual National Visiting

Nurse Associations Week would increase public awareness of the charity-based missions of visiting nurse associations and of their ability to meet the needs of chron-
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ically ill and disabled individuals who prefer to live at

home rather than in a nursing home, and would spotlight

preventive health clinics, adult day care programs, and

other customized wellness programs that meet local community need: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that there

3 should be established an annual National Visiting Nurse

4 Associations Week.

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