Photo courtesy of cindyaxneforcongress.com

As some rural hospitals face severe staffing shortages, a bill introduced by Iowa Congresswoman Cindy Axne (D) would delay enforcement of regulations that would limit the ability of rural hospitals to provide care.

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee recently advanced the bipartisan legislation that would postpone implementation of the requirement that a physician or non-physician practitioner be physically present for outpatient therapeutic services until 2021. This requirement was first introduced in 2009, but enforcement has been delayed by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services and Congress until now. Axne explains this “direct supervision” requirement, “These would be things that we’re so used to going to in an urban area, like going in and getting your lab work done. The law would state that we needed to have a physician on duty for somebody to do that lab work. Well, that’s not always an opportunity for our rural areas and we can’t force people to not be able to get the services they need in their own backyard.”

Axne’s legislation has been endorsed by the Federation of American Hospitals, and was included in the Health Equity and Access for Returning Troops and Servicemembers (HEARTS) and Rural Relief Act. Listen to a recent Let’s Talk Guthrie County to hear more from Axne at raccoonvalleyradio.com.