AFGE Applauds Senator Rockefeller and Representative Filner for Introducing Key Legislation

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) today applauded the efforts of Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and Representative Bob Filner, Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs for authoring legislation to amend Section 7422 of Title 38, expanding the workplace voice and negotiating rights of physicians, dentists, registered nurses and other frontline health care employees in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Sen. Rockefeller and Rep. Filner introduced legislation, S.362 and H.R. 949, clarifying Congress’ clear intent to afford VA health care professionals the same collective bargaining rights enjoyed by their counterparts in military hospitals and Bureau of Prison facilities. “This critical legislation will go a along way to ensure that the VA is a model employer who can compete for the best health care professionals to care for our veterans,” said J. David Cox, AFGE national secretary-treasurer.

Over thirty years ago, Congress recognized the importance of collective bargaining rights when it enacted the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, declaring that collective bargaining rights are in the public interest. Since that time, employees throughout the federal government have utilized collective bargaining to voice concerns about important workplace matters. Congress took action again in 1991 to ensure equal bargaining rights for VA health care professionals by enacting Section 7422 of Title 38. However, over the past six years, the VA has increasingly used this section of the law to directly contradict Congressional intent and deprive these clinicians of the very same rights used every day by their colleagues working side by side with them at the VA, such as pharmacists, social workers, psychologists and licensed practical nurses.

“Collective bargaining rights play a critical role in improving public safety and the quality of public services provided by federal, state, and local governments, including safe air travel, crime control, and safe health care,” said J. David Cox, AFGE national secretary-treasurer. “Congress outlined its intent to afford VA employees the same collective bargaining rights as other federal employees, but unfortunately for the VA workforce and the veterans they care for, the VA’s current human resources policy has acted contrary to that intent.”

The American Federation of Government Employees is the largest federal employee union representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.
SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees

Regence Foundation awards $380,000 for local clinics and health technology projects

PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ — The Regence Foundation announced today eight grants geared toward building healthier communities and improving health care technology in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington. The grants, totaling $380,000, range from rural nursing education to building a health care quality Web site.

“The Regence Foundation believes philanthropy is a meaningful tool to help transform health care,” said Michael Alexander, Regence Foundation board chair. “And in these tough economic times, it’s even more important to support the good work of local nonprofits to help the most vulnerable among us.”

• Mountain States Group (Boise, ID): $10,000 to fund its Cover Idaho Kids Project. The program will help school nurses in 15 rural Idaho school districts enroll uninsured children in the Idaho Health Plan Coverage for Children and Teens program (formerly called the CHIP/Medicaid Program).
• United Way of Lane County (Springfield, OR): $25,000 to help the organization’s 100% Access program strengthen the county’s clinic safety net system. Lane County has the second highest rate of uninsured residents in Oregon, and 100% Access is working to improve the coordination of care for the uninsured and increase the resources and support available to safety net clinics.
• Western Washington Health Education Center (Seattle, WA): $135,500 to support a distance learning program for rural nursing students so they can pursue nursing education while continuing to live and work in their own communities. The distance learning program is intended to help ease Washington’s nursing shortage, which is especially severe in rural areas.
• Medical Foundation of Marion and Polk Counties (Salem, OR): $21,600 to help connect uninsured people with available providers. In the Salem area, a significant number of uninsured patients rely on free or reduced-fee care from local physicians, and Project Access developed a systematic way of efficiently linking people needing care with providers able to give it.
• Coalition of Community Health Clinics (Portland, OR): $44,200 to create a prescription drug toolbox for its member clinics. The toolbox will contain strategies to help reduce the cost of prescription drugs for the clinics and its patients, because medication cost is often a barrier to following through on treatment plans.
• Rinehart Clinic (Wheeler, OR): $58,900 to implement electronic health records to improve the clinic’s chronic disease management program, prevent prescription drug errors and interactions, increase preventive medicine focus and expedite access to patient records and lab results.
• Christ Clinic (Spokane, WA): $30,000 challenge grant to fund the organization’s hire of an additional nurse practitioner and its ability to treat patients. Currently, the clinic is understaffed and forced to turn patients away. This grant will help triple the number of uninsured patients it is able to see.
• Utah Partnership for Value-Driven Health Care (Salt Lake City, UT): $54,800 to build a consumer-focused health Web site. The organization is dedicated to helping consumers make smart health care choices, and the site will feature a health care rating system and information about health care quality, cost and access.

“The Regence Foundation is committed to supporting the work of nonprofits tackling some of the root causes of our broken health care system,” said Monique Barton, Regence Foundation executive director. “These eight grants all recognize and support transformative nonprofits improving the health care system through innovative methods.”

The grants were funded through The Regence Fund at The Oregon Community Foundation. For more information, please visit regencefoundation.org.

About The Regence Foundation

The Regence Foundation is the corporate foundation of The Regence Group, the largest health insurer in the Northwest/Intermountain region and a not-for-profit independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. A 501(c)3 grantmaking organization, the Foundation partners with organizations driving significant change in health care delivery and accessibility in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Starting in spring 2009, the Foundation will also partner with organizations addressing end-of-life issues.

SOURCE The Regence Foundation