The Pulse | Thursday, April 26, 2018

Progress on the Hill: One SGNA Member’s Experience at Call-On Congress

Nancy Denton, RN BSN CGRN

Earlier this year, Fight Colorectal Cancer, an organization whose mission is to fight the disease through advocacy, research and awareness, held their 12th annual Call-On Congress. The three-day event took place in Washington, D.C., and was attended by over 150 advocates – including SGNA’s Nancy Denton, RN BSN CGRN.

Here she shares how a Medicare loophole sparked her into action, the unexpected results she and others achieved during Call-On Congress, as well as call for fellow GI nurses and associates to get involved, at any level possible.

A Loophole that Sparked Action
When I was at a leadership conference last fall, I heard about Fight Colorectal Cancer’s (CRC) Call-On Congress as a way to get legislation related to colon cancer changed at a federal level. I was aware of a loophole in legislation that causes Medicare participants to be charged a copay on a preventative screening colonoscopy if a polyp is found; there is no charge if a polyp is not found. This made no sense to me, since the reason we do screening is to find polyps and remove them to avoid becoming cancers. I feel this loophole is a deterrent to getting as many people screened as possible – the whole mission of the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable’s 80 percent by ’18 campaign. I thought I could help present this argument to our legislators, so I applied for a scholarship and was selected to attend.

When I got to Washington D.C., it was so much more than just political advocacy. It was personal. This was a group of people who came together to fight colorectal cancer. Of those in attendance, 90 percent were colorectal cancer survivors, fighters and family members who have lost loved ones to the disease. The remaining 10 percent where people in healthcare, researchers and support staff. It was a pretty amazing group of people. I met many Stage III and IV colon cancer fighters that have been given the strength to continue fighting through this group.

Speak Up, Vote and Don’t Back Down

From a high-level perspective, I encourage my peers to be aware of issues where you can effect change by coming together as a group and putting influence on your legislators. They work for us. It is our responsibility to let them know what is important to us and how we want them to vote.

Specific to this effort, we asked for the support of house bill HR 1017 and Senate bill S479, for the Medicare loophole to be corrected. This loophole has already been corrected by private insurance providers, and we believe Medicare participants should be treated no differently. Contact your representatives and senators, and tell them how you feel. Following this effort, we received 15 new co-sponsors to the bill.

We also asked for support of research funding through the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health budget. Again, success was achieved with our march on Capitol Hill. Only two days after Fight Colorectal Cancer (CRC) advocates took to the Hill at Call-On Congress, Congress passed a budget bill that included $3 billion for research — $1 billion more than we asked for. That budget bill also included $20 million for the Department of Defense’s Peer-Reviewed Cancer Research Program and excluded the President’s proposed consolidation of the CDC’s Colorectal Cancer Control Program.

In your opinion, what is the importance of staying politically active in this profession – whether in-person, virtually, at a national level or a local level?

Every day, we work with patients who have colorectal cancer. We need to be informed about what affects our work, as well as what affects our patients. And staying informed is not limited to issues around colorectal cancer, but how legislation affects our patients’ ability to pay bills, as well as research on many different GI diseases such as Lynch syndrome, esophageal cancer and Crohn’s and Colitis, to name a few.

Get Involved In Any Way, at Any Level

You can follow Fight CRC and their efforts via their website, FightCRC.org. As with any group, fundraising is important. Any support at a local, regional or national level is encouraged. For example, the Undy Runs support Fight CRC and take place across the country every year.

Fight CRC has several groups that are affiliated with them, including “The Colon Club.” This is a group that supports CRC survivors under 40 years old. One of the most surprising things to me, and to many others, is how many young people are being diagnosed with advanced CRC.

The group also puts together many great publications to support patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer. If you would like to get a hold of any of these materials, contact FightCRC.org or myself and I would be happy to get some of these materials for you.

I would love to attend Call-On Congress next year. If not the whole event, then just for a day with their fly-in option for Hill Day. They also have a virtual Hill Day so you can support the event without leaving home. I hope to see some of my SGNA friends there next March.