Kilmer Secures Provision to Prevent Cuts to Olympic Medical Center

And thanks to Deorro and ranking member Cole and the terrific Committee staff for the work on this bill, the Corona virus pandemic unfortunately, laid bare a number of challenges that our communities have been facing even before this virus struck we've seen tremendous strain in rural health care even before anyone had heard of Cot. but I am grateful that this Committee and its leaders have stepped up and particularly grateful that this Committee hasn't forgotten the unique needs of rural communities I. I think the chair for including a provision that maybe a bit under the radar for some, but it's a really big deal for my district. I want to take a second on this bill includes language directing the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to comply with a court ruling ordering them to reverse payment cuts related to rule making they put forward a couple of years ago. I don't say this in a partisan way. It's just a fact this administration advance the rule change a couple of years ago that would hurt rural medical. Providers like Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, Washington. to OMC alone, it would be a cut of 40 - seven million dollars over. 10 years. Our rural hospitals sued making clear that this proposed cut violated congressional intent and in fact that it violated the law and they won and yet CMS has dragged its feet. appealed done everything but these rural So this bill includes a provision that says simply put knock Listen to the courts reverse these cuts and provide back pay so our hospitals aren't stretched thin at the time they're already getting hammered. That's a really big deal to Olympic Medical Center and to providers like it and it's a big deal for rural jobs and rural health care and I'd like to thank the chair for including it. In addition, this bill urges the administration to explicitly considered the impacts that any future rule making would have on rural hospitals in critical access hospitals to make sure that they aren't. Burden, which could risk their ability to provide critical care to the folks who need it. I'm I'm also grateful to Mister Rogers Point that this bill contains funds for rural communities Opioid response program for state opioid grants on the Olympic Peninsula, the Kitsap Peninsula, Pierce County. We need that help to fight opioid epidemic that is sadly taking a huge toll on families every day. Finally, this bill takes an important step toward improving mental health care in rural communities by directing the Government Accountability Office to look at the role that critical. Hospitals play in providing emergency mental health services and opioid use disorder treatment Importantly, the study will ask whether it would be more cost effective to help these hospitals provide preventive care rather than waiting until emergencies happen. We've got to continue to find ways to keep our communities physically and mentally healthy, not just treating folks when they get sick as our rural health care providers are on the front lines of this pandemic. I'm proud that this bill provides them the support they need to. Need for communities to be healthy and I urge my colleagues to support him.