Seventh District Hospitals Top the Charts

Chartis Healthcare Consulting has announced their top hospitals and I am so proud to say that many of the Seventh District's facilities made the list!

Congratulations to the Avera Granite Falls Health Center, CentraCare Redwood Falls, Kittson Healthcare, Meeker County Memorial Hospital, Olivia Hospital and Clinic, and Pipestone County Medical Center & Family Clinic Avera for making the top 100 critical access hospitals.

And congratulations to Alomere Health in Alexandria, Essentia Health St. Mary's in Detroit Lakes, and Hutchinson Health Hospital for making the top 100 rural & community hospitals.

I am so proud of all of our critical access hospitals across western Minnesota and I am honored to represent them in Congress working for quality care for our rural communities.

Protecting America's Seniors Access to Care

Seniors across this country deserve the highest level of care, regardless of where they live. Unfortunately, nursing homes across greater Minnesota are facing closure because of overregulation and significant staffing issues. This is a serious problem and I am committed to protecting America’s seniors access to quality care by dialing back the Biden Administrations out of touch policies such at the federal nursing staff ratio mandate.

Despite a report commissioned by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that found that there is no single staffing level that guarantees quality care, the Administration moved forward with a rule that would force many facilities to turn away patients or close their doors altogether. This means that so many across western Minnesota would have to move miles away from the community they know. 

This mandate was for a one-size-fits-none plan that demonstrated a lack of understanding of rural Americas needs. I introduced the Protecting America's Seniors Access to Care Act to prohibit the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from implementing the last Administration's misguided staffing rule. I look forward to working with the Trump Administration and stakeholders on strong policies that focus on supporting nursing staff recruitment and retention to solve the workforce shortage in this country. 

Expanding Health Training in Rural Areas

As I mentioned above, there is no denying the workforce shortage in the healthcare industry and I am always looking for ways to change that. One mechanism is through Federal Nursing and Allied Health (N&AH). These are education programs designed to help providers maintain an adequate workforce by incentivizing the training of nonphysician professionals like anesthetists, occupational therapists, pharmacy residents, X-ray technologists, and yes, nurses. 

When these programs were created by regulation in the late 1990s, there were no large health systems. The N&AH educational programs are housed in an individual hospital. This has prevented nursing and allied health students from training in smaller facilities, outside their program's host hospitals, like those across western Minnesota. This year, I cosponsored the bipartisan Rebuilding America's Health Care Schools Act, which would allow N&AH students to receive their training at in-health system facilities in rural areas, helping alleviate staffing strains in those facilities.

Investing in Rural America

Rural communities across the country are struggling to retain population, much less attract future generations. The good news is, there are ways Congress can support them. One way we can do that is by eliminating unnecessary regulatory barriers to capital investment, particularly on critical community facilities like hospitals, non-profit community health centers, and senior care centers. This week, I was proud to reintroduce the Investing in Rural America Act to provide critical capital resources to rural communities through improvements to the Community Facilities Loan and Grant Program.

This bill encourages investment in rural communities by: 

• Restoring and codifying farm credit institutions' eligibility to finance essential rural facilities in partnership with local lenders and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Community Facilities Loan and Grant Program,
• Placing explicit guardrails around Farm Credit Institution's (FCI's) authorities in financing essential community facilities, including a requirement to offer participation with at least one non-FCI lending institution on any potential project, and
• Requiring a report to Congress on the projects undertaken by FCIs, including the partnerships established between lending institutions for such projects.

I am proud of our strong, rural communities and it is an honor to represent them in Washington. Attracting private sector investment in key community facilities will strengthening our rural communities and encourage future generations to see them as home.

In Support of Medicare Coverage for Early Detection Cancer Screenings

When it comes to cancer, catching it as early as possible is crucial. It saves lives and significantly cuts treatment costs. Thanks to advances in medicine, we now have the ability to test for multiple types of cancer through a single, non-invasive blood test. Unfortunately, the FDA-approved multi-cancer early detection tests are not currently covered by Medicare.

I am proud to say I am a cosponsor of the bipartisan Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act, named in honor of Congresswoman Teri Sewell's late mother, to require Medicare to cover the FDA-approved multi-cancer early detection tests.

Expanding Distance Learning and Telemedicine Funding

During the COVID-19 pandemic, increases in telehealth and telemedicine have been helpful to the Seventh District in so many ways. For example, thanks to the Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) program, the Seventh District has received $1,794,254 and has served 940,414 constituents. This program allocates grants to assist rural communities, those with a population of 20,000 or fewer, in acquiring the essential technology and training needed to establish connections between education and medical experts, students, teachers, and patients.

My colleagues in Congress and I are working to expand this hugely beneficial program through the Rural Telehealth and Education Enhancement Act. This bill increases appropriations for DLT from $75 million to $82 million annually through Fiscal Year 2030. And, as we are all deeply committed to ending the fentanyl epidemic and support those suffering with addiction, it mandates that a minimum of 20% of the program's funding for telemedicine initiatives focus on treatment services for substance use disorder. 

Thank you for reading!

fischbach.house.gov

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