118 STAT. 4079 CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS—NOV. 19, 2004 NATIONAL VISITING NURSE ASSOCIATION WEEK—SUPPORT Whereas visiting nurse associations (‘‘VNAs’’) are nonprofit home health agencies that, for more than 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 approximately 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 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 more than 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 mem- bers, raising funds, visiting patients in their homes, assisting in wellness clinics, and delivering meals to patients; Whereas the establishment of a National Visiting Nurse Association Week would increase public awareness of the charity-based mis- sions of visiting nurse associations and of their ability to meet the needs of chronically ill and disabled individuals who prefer to live at home rather than in a nursing home, and would spot- light preventive health clinics, adult day care programs, and other customized wellness programs that meet local community needs; and Whereas the second week of May 2005 is an appropriate week to establish as National Visiting Nurse Association Week: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that there should be established a National Visiting Nurse Association Week. Agreed to November 19, 2004. Nov. 19, 2004 [S. Con. Res. 8] VerDate 11-MAY-2000 15:04 Nov 10, 2005 Jkt 029194 PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 9796 Sfmt 9796 C:\STATUTES\2004\29194PT4.003 APPS10 PsN: 29194PT4
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