Initiatives to Improve Rural Healthcare
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) is continuing his efforts to improve the quality and accessibility of Minnesota’s rural healthcare. With the upcoming closure of a Critical access hospital in Ivanhoe, Minnesota, Coleman states “there is a sense of urgency to address rural healthcare.” Critical access hospitals have no greater than 25 beds and are generally located in rural areas.
Coleman’s comprehensive plan addresses the following challenges in rural healthcare:
- “Shortage of rural health care personnel;
- The need for improved mental health services in rural communities;
- Expansion of remote monitoring to make the most advanced healthcare more accessible;
- Long-term sustainability of critical access hospitals;
- Rehabilitating dilapidated critical access hospital buildings; and
- Enabling rural hospitals to better compete for funding to modernize their health information technology systems.”
Rural healthcare continues to be a challenge in the U.S. There are over 1200 hospitals across the country that are designated as critical access hospitals. Minnesota has the third largest number with 80 critical access hospitals. Senator Coleman’s rural health agenda includes the following bills:
- “Rural Health Services Preservation Act: This bill will ensure that critical access hospitals are reimbursed at a rate that allows them to cover costs of the important services they offer.
- Critical Access to Health Information Technology Act: This legislation will help rural hospitals compete for federal health technology grants.
- Remote Monitoring Access Act: This bill would create a new benefit category for remote patient management services in the Medicare physician fee schedule. Initially, Medicare would cover treatment of congestive heart failure, diabetes, and cardiac arrhythmia with the option of covering additional conditions in the future.
- Rural Critical Access Hospital Reconstruction and Rehabilitation: This legislation will provide $1.6 billion allocated over five years for rural critical access hospitals across the country.
- Cass County Critical Access Hospital: Currently, many Cass County residents are an hour’s drive or more from the nearest hospital. This legislation will enable the City of Walker to build a CAH by cutting through the red tape requiring it to be a minimum of 35 miles from the nearest hospital.
- Rural Access to Mental Health and Wellness for Children and Seniors Act: This legislation will establish federal grants to provide assistance to rural schools, hospitals, and communities to conduct collaborative efforts to secure a system to improve access to mental healthcare for youth, seniors, and families; and to increase access of elementary and secondary students to mental health services in rural areas by operating a mobile health services program and enhancing tele-mental health initiatives.
- Rural Nursing Promotion Act: One of the greatest challenges rural hospitals face is healthcare personnel shortages. This bill will create the Nurse Distance Education Pilot Program, an online program giving students in rural areas access to a nursing education. This program will also encourage institutions of higher learning to expand their current nursing programs or create new programs. It will also require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to report to Congress possible solutions to the nursing and physical therapy shortage. Finally, this bill will add flexibility to allow more foreign nurses and physical therapists to help fill the current shortage in rural America.”
Comprehensive resources for rural health and human services information including resources about critical access hospitals can be found on the Rural Assistance Center’s website.
February 19, 2007 Related topics: Legal & legislative