Legislative News

The Truth be told Senate Bill 28, banning mandatory overtime, dies in House Finance at end of session

April 30, 2008

After passing Senate Labor, Finance, and the Senate floor 17-3, two things happened. The President of the Senate, a Republican and business/insurance ally, immediately put pressure on the House to kill the bill. We got the bill through House Health Education and Social Services (HESS), and during the long testimony, the hospital association and hospitals were horrible. They testified using different data than what their own association presented; they were caught in misinformation by legislators; their dirty laundry was aired, and one CEO came out and said nurses were "just too expensive." The bill was passed out of HESS with no objections. So, we made it through to House Finance.

Are you sitting down? The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and Alaska Native Medical Center came to House Finance and said this bill would create a greater shortage because they would have to hire more nurses, and they can't get enough to work in the small Alaskan communities. So as usual, instead of "incentivizing", let's just keep perpetuating the shortage by working the people to death. We actually agreed to the Consortium amendment for an exemption based on Federal money and programs that they receive. The House Finance refused to listen. The Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association actually brags about Rep. Meyer's heroic efforts. Now the hospitals are claiming victory as well saying the "Alaska Native health care leadersÉrefused to accept an exemption from the nurse overtime limits in return for their support of the bill." IT WAS AN AMENDMENT PROPOSED BY THE HEALTH CONSORTIUM!!

Now, do you have your oxygen? The Consortium and ANMC lobbied against this bill while they were laying off at their main hospital, and going through their Magnet recertification visit. THE SAME DAY we're touting ANA's literature and data from their website, while ANCC is at a certifying meeting with a hospital that may be getting ready to work the nurses more. ANCC is an affiliate of ANA!

The bill died in House Finance as of Saturday, April 12, 2008. Needless to say we are now aware of the truth. We've met with Rep. Meyer. We received the phone calls for the Consortium and ANMC offering THEIR amendment only to have the hospitals misinform about its origination. Nurses from all over the state took great risk in testifying and working together for a legislative action that would have forced the hospitals to actually hire enough nurses to do the work as the community expects. We thank your local legislators on the House Health Education and Social Services Committee. They asked great questions of all sides and did the right thing by challenging hospital produced data we've been saying was suspect since it first began appearing in 2004. The Senate did the right thing as well. Nurses were energized in every corner of this state Ð and it's a big state! ANCC's Magnet group has been sent a letter from the Association.

We're tired of staying quiet and nice. The hospitals pulled the gloves off, and nurses and the community are only suffering for their profits. By the way, the largest hospital system in the state netted 44 million dollars while cutting more staff and forcing yet another unit to accept mandatory call as soon as Senate Bill 28 was killed by their Representative. (If you don't believe this blog, go to: ASHNHA's website and read the President's Report. Be quick. I'm sure as soon as they hear they have their facts totally wrong it will change. If you'd like a paper copy I have one.)

 

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Tips for Tracking Legislation

Go to www.legis.state.ak.us.

Double click on "Bill Action & Status Inquiry System" (BASIS) on the top right-hand side.

Enter the bill number. You must click on the gray area Display Bill Root—the enter key does not work.

Type in "SB ___" or "HB ___".

"Bill History & Action" is the next page to appear. This page shows you all the action that has taken place thus far on the bill.

Scroll down and you will see which committee it is in.

Scroll back up and double click on "Full Text"; you then arrive at "Bill Resolutions Versions Display."

If you have Adobe Acrobat, choose the PDF file. If you don't, choose from the left-hand side. You will notice several versions of the bill, but the bottom one is the most current version. This is the version that is in the respective committee. Let's say you want to compare the original bill and the most current version. Print out the version at the top of the page (original version) and the version at the bottom of the page (current version) and compare.

Let's say you want to look at the minutes of a particular meeting but you're not sure of the date of the meeting. The best way to do this is to go back to the "Bill History & Action" page.

Scroll down. The entries for a bill will show action by a committee, including the summary of the committee members' votes.

Go back to the "Bill History & Action" page. On the right-hand side you will see a list ("bill action, sponsor summary, subject summary, etc"). Scroll down to "Committee Minute Selection" (2nd from the bottom). You are now at "Committee Minute Query."

Click on "Senate Minutes" and enter the dates. (Tip: enter dates a little before and a little after the date that is shown on the "Bill History & Action" page.)

Enter the Bill Number — "SB ___" or "HB ___".

Click on "Display Minute Summary." You will now see all the minutes from the meetings. Click on whichever ones you want to read.

Let's say you don't know a bill number but know who sponsored a bill. ON the BASIS home page you will see "Sponsor Summary" on the right-hand side. Click on it and go from there.

Let's say you don't know the bill number nor the sponsor. On the BASIS home page you will see "Subject Summary." Click on the subject and go from there.

This may seem like "too much to handle," but it really is simple once you get used to it. You will notice on the www.legis.state.ak.us page there is a great deal of information available to you.

Use it. Get familiar with it. The more you use it, the stronger we become and the more we will be heard.

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