President Messages

Thank you to our members for again generously donating to the Christmas for Kids Fundraiser! We can’t thank everyone enough for participating in contributing to this cause and adding to this generous amount.

Dear MeANA Members,

I and the Board hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season and joyous New Year.  This new year brings with it hopes for a normalization of life and work-place routines during this continued Covid pandemic.  I sincerely hope that this year will allow our CRNA community to return to in person meetings and events on the state and national level. The MeANA Board, and our Past President (Susan DeCarlo) came upon an agreement with the BON about the annual CEU’s which was disseminated at the close of the year to membership. I plan to have a monthly “open meeting” for state members to talk with myself and board members via a virtual means for a half hour time frame.  These open meetings will serve to give state members access to myself and board members for questions, issues, concerns, and any recommendations. Our first meeting will take place on on Thursday January 27th at 8pm via zoom.  I look forward to this new year and encourage anyone to please reach out to me or the Board for anything that is needed in relation to CRNA representation.

Respectfully,

Andrew Osborne

DNP, CRNA, APRN  

It is truly hard to believe how quickly the year has passed as I prepare to transition to immediate past President. It was certainly a busy year. It takes a collective effort to make an association like ours viable. Read more here.

CRNAS have much to be proud of as the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) celebrated its 90th anniversary on June 17th. 



 “The vision of pioneer nurse anesthetist Agatha Hodgins who, in Cleveland, Ohio, founded the National Association of Nurse Anesthetists (NANA), sought to assemble her peers to advance the science of nurse anesthesiology. NANA became the AANA, which today serves as the largest national association that champions Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists (SRNAs), who dedicate their careers to saving lives and easing suffering.”

    “Our vision has remained unchanged for the past 90 years – to advocate for our members, our growing profession, and, most importantly, our patients,” AANA  President Steven M. Sertich, CRNA, MAE, JD, Esquire, said. “CRNAs and SRNAs practice in every setting across the country, employing the latest technology and evidence-based knowledge to care for the whole patient.”

Continue Reading.


Happy Spring Everyone! MeANA has some exciting news to share with its members. First Congratulations to our Legislative Advocacy Team who have been successful in passing LD 254, “An Act to Allow Certified Nurse Anesthetists to Bill for Their Services.” Our Governor signed it into law on April 6th, 2021. This bill will help level the playing field for all CRNAs in our state. This bill will require insurers to provide coverage and payment to CRNAs for our services as long as the services are within our scope of practice and covered by all insurance carriers. Direct reimbursement was already included in Maine law for other APRNs, such as Nurse Midwives and Nurse Practitioners. This legislation aligns CRNA reimbursement with other APRNs in our state. CRNAs are now able to be reimbursed for the care that we provide! This legislative effort took a period of three years, so a big Thank You to our Legislative Advocacy Team! Read more here.


Welcome 2021

On behalf of the entire MeANA Board, we’d like to wish all of our loyal and hardworking members a healthy, happy holiday season and a joyous New Year.

As we transition into the new year, we are filled with relief with the coming of the vaccine to frontline health care professionals. We can finally start to see a glimmer of hope and peace of mind. 2020 has almost certainly been one of the hardest years health care professionals have faced in our lifetimes, you have all made sacrifices and hard choices. CRNAs are respected and valued in our state because of you! Read more here.