Coleman unveils health care plan

02/26/2007

By Tonia Goertz
Pipestone County News


Republican Senator Norm Coleman hosted press conferences on Friday at Critical Access Hospitals in New Ulm, Pipestone, Sauk Centre and Crookston in his continuing effort to enhance the quality and accessibility of Minnesota’s rural healthcare services.

Introducing Coleman at the Pipestone County Medical Center, PCMC CEO Brad Burris said, “Norm Coleman is a champion of rural health care and someone who appreciates how important hospitals are to small town America.”

Burris went on saying, “He knows the lives that are saved, the babies that are born, the elderly that are cared for, and the jobs that are created and maintained and that is why I am happy he is at this hospital.”

During the press conference at PCMC, Coleman said, “Access to high quality healthcare should never be dependent on your zip code and right now, however, 40 percent of the rural population in America lives in a medically underserved area, with access to care an average of 30 miles away. I know firsthand about the many challenges our rural hospitals face. Challenges like declining populations, unrealistic reimbursement payments and limited financial resources. My initiatives directly address the concerns I heard about from people during my trip last year.”

Coleman explained, “I know that our rural health system is one of the strongest in the country, and our critical access hospitals form the backbone of many Minnesota communities. This is a multi-faceted issue that merits a comprehensive strategy.”

Coleman’s legislation is aimed at addressing the shortage of rural health care personnel, the need for improved mental health services in rural communities, and the opportunity to make the most advanced healthcare more accessible to rural areas through remote monitoring. They also focus on the long-term sustainability of Critical Access Hospitals, rehabilitating dilapidated CAH buildings, and enabling those rural hospitals to better compete for funding to modernize their health information technology systems because those facilities provide healthcare to more than 1.6 million Minnesotans in rural communities each year. He explained, “You need quality people to provide quality care and training, technology, and good facilities are all expensive.”

Coleman’s rural health agenda, unveiled in the Senate on February 15, is comprised of the seven 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 the costs of the important services they offer addressing growing disparity in access to health care in Greater Minnesota.

• Critical Access to Health Information Technology Act: Many rural hospitals in Minnesota and across the country lack the ability to compete with larger hospitals for federal funding due to smaller numbers of patients and personnel. This legislation will help rural hospitals compete for federal health technology grants.

• Remote Monitoring Access Act: An estimated 40 percent of our rural populations live in a medically underserved area, with access to care an average of 30 miles or more away. Fortunately, promising new technologies that collect, analyze, and transmit clinical health information are coming on line. 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: To ensure the construction and maintenance of Critical Access Hospitals in vital areas of the state, 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: Providing adequate mental healthcare in rural communities has become a national challenge. 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. This will increase access for 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.