National Nurses Month: Thank you, home health & hospice nurses!

National Nurses Month

Nurses are the backbone of our home health and hospice care system. In every corner of the state Vermonters and their families depend on the outstanding, compassionate care provided by hardworking nurses through VNAs of Vermont member agencies.

Every May, as a nation, we celebrate National Nurses Month. It’s an opportunity to reflect on how important the contributions of nurses are to our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, brave nurses donned personal protective equipment in people’s driveways to make sure Vermonters got the care they needed. They cared for people known to have COVID-19 and they walked into the unknown every day during a very scary time.

The public health emergency put a spotlight on the indispensable care nurses in every health care setting, including the home, provide, but pandemic or not, Vermont nurses are also there for us and our families during our personal health emergencies, too.

Home health and hospice agency nurses help support Vermonters after a hospital visit, allowing patients to heal at home while freeing up hospital beds for those who may next need them. Nurses enable us to receive wound care, maternal-child health, immunizations, and end of life care in the places that we call home.

This National Nurses Month, please join us in reflecting on, and giving our gratitude, to the many home health and hospice agency nurses who are there for our Vermont families at their most vulnerable times.

Nurses, thank you.

The End of Session, and End to the Provider Tax

The 2023 legislative session has ended! On May 12, the Vermont House and Senate adjourned, after coming to agreement on the budget. Click “Read More” for more information.

This session, the legislature has done the single most important thing they could do to support home health and hospice care for Vermonters by supporting the Governor’s proposal to allow the provider tax to sunset.

While it’s still possible that late-session bills, including the budget, will face a veto by the Governor, we are hopeful we won’t see major changes to legislation directly impacting home health and hospice agencies.

Vermont’s home health system continues to grapple with unprecedented Medicare cuts, chronic underfunding, and a workforce crisis in many parts of the state. Allowing the provider tax burden to sunset, effective July 1, alleviates one key pressure point on the agencies working to care for our family members, friends, and neighbors across the state.

Thank you to the Scott administration and Vermont legislators for supporting access to home health and hospice care for Vermonters.

VNAs of Vermont will be publishing our full Final Report on the 2023 Legislative Session shortly, so stay tuned for a comprehensive update on the many bills we tracked this year.

For now, click the ‘Read More’ button for a brief update on some of the priority legislation we followed or testified on during the 2023 session.