New
Service for TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com
readers...roll mouse over, click on
highlighted links in stories to review items
from Amazon
Now, keep up to date
with daily feeds of newly posted stories
about America's Seniors...click on the box
to the left
House Subcommittee examines Rural Health
Care disparities
[Jul 28, 2008] Critical telecommunication
and work force challenges contribute to
greater disparities in access to health care
in rural areas, according to panelists at a
House Agriculture Subcommittee on Specialty
Crops, Rural Development and Foreign
Agriculture hearing last week,
CQ HealthBeat
reports.
Wayne Myers of the
Maine Health Access Foundation,
representing the
National Rural Health Association, said
it is "extremely difficult and expensive" to
recruit and retain physicians and health
care providers in rural areas.
Tom Morris, acting associate administrator
for
HHS' Health Resources and Services
Administration's
Office of Rural Health Policy, discussed
current programs meant to retain doctors in
rural communities including the
National Health Service Corps -- where
more than half of the participants go to
practice in rural areas -- and the
National Rural Recruitment and Retention
Network, which over the past four years
has placed about 2,900 clinicians in rural
areas.
Subcommittee Chair Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.)
said that federal grant and loan programs
are essential to improving rural health
care. McIntyre said, "With limited dollars
available for rural health care programs, we
must ensure they are used in ways that
address the challenges and with sufficient
federal coordination."
Karen Rheuban of the
University of Virginia Health System
said that rural grants are of little value
without an effective Medicare reimbursement
system for telehealth services, which
improve rural health treatment options.
According to Rheuban, Medicare has a "far
less inclusive" definition of rural than
that of
USDA or
Federal Communications Commission and,
"The largest challenge we face, quite
frankly, is a lack of reimbursement" for
providing telehealth services.
Thomas Dorr, undersecretary of Agriculture
for rural development, highlighted USDA's
Community Facilities Program, which has
invested more than $1.75 billion in more
than 1,000 rural health care facilities
since 2001 (Parnass,
CQ HealthBeat, 7/25).
...
...
...