Supporting Rural Health Needs

Health care is an increasingly complex landscape to navigate, but that is even more true when access to medical care is scarce, as is the case in so many rural areas of Arkansas and across our country.

We know there is no substitute for a readily available supply of doctors, nurses and other providers in our own community. The opportunity to receive convenient primary care, as well as specialized services and even acute treatment, is increasingly becoming a privilege for many Americans. This reality is leading to new challenges in the delivery of medical care.

Yet it also puts an even greater focus on the organizations and personnel serving the 61 million people nationwide, including hundreds of thousands in Arkansas, considered to live in rural areas.

During November, we designate a day to express our appreciation for them and remind ourselves of the importance of health care access in less populated communities. This year, National Rural Health Day occurred on Thursday, November 21. I know many Arkansans joined me in sharing tremendous thanks with our doctors, nurses, EMS personnel and health care workers living and working outside more populated regions.

In Congress, I have been working to bolster the health care network in rural America to better support residents and providers.

To help curb the trend of hospital closures in these localities, my colleagues and I introduced the Save Rural Hospitals Act to ensure hospitals are fairly reimbursed for their services by the federal government. This bipartisan measure would help preserve access to quality and affordable health care at a time when hospitals in less urban settings are struggling to stay operational.

Mental health support is another resource rural residents are seeking more and more frequently. In fact, rural residents can be nearly overlooked when it comes to the need for mental health services. One important step to provide this vital care would be to expand the availability of grants that enable virtual mental health care, which legislation I joined – the Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act – would do. I am also leading work to reauthorize the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN), a program that connects the agriculture community to stress management programs and resources.

Telehealth is transforming the practice of medicine and represents a key tool in helping rural Americans stay connected to their physicians and medical teams. I have long championed the adoption of this innovative technology to close the emerging geographic divide that can keep routine, quality care out of reach.

That’s why I strongly advocate for policies to permanently extend pandemic-era virtual care flexibilities to improve health outcomes and better enable patients to connect with their doctors. The Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act, Telehealth Modernization Act and Expanded Telehealth Access Act would all boost rural and underserved populations’ ability to receive treatment from health care providers no matter where they live.

Another critical source of care for those in rural areas comes from community health centers (CHC), which have long earned my support because of the basic primary care they deliver to vulnerable Arkansans. In our state alone, 230 CHC facilities serve nearly 300,000 people with preventative and comprehensive services that help keep residents healthy and productive.

Rural America has changed considerably in most Americans’ lifetimes. One thing that has not changed is the desire among the men and women who call it home to help and serve each other. We can support them as well, including through efforts to enhance the health care and treatment options available to them.

I look forward to continuing to advocate for those needs in the Senate.