Soon, I intend to introduce a series of bills designed to strengthen Pennsylvania’s eligibility for new federal funding streams under the Rural Health Transformation Program.
 
Congress created this program to deliver lifeline support to rural hospitals, clinics, and caregivers. Half of these funds will be granted automatically, but recent guidance from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) indicates that Pennsylvania can increase its eligibility for these federal funds in direct response to introduction and enactment of certain policies.
 
The mere introduction of these bills increases the Commonwealth’s eligibility for these funds, though passage and enactment will ensure we have our strongest chance to preserve the struggling institutions that provide healthcare in rural areas.
 
This set of bills includes:
 
1) Requiring nutrition continuing medical education (CME) for clinicians to ensure providers are better equipped to address diet-related chronic disease.
 
2) Reinstating statewide physical fitness standards for schoolchildren, modeled on the former Presidential Fitness Test, to promote lifelong health and meet prevention benchmarks.
 
3) Joining the Physician Assistant Licensure Compact to expand our rural workforce by making it easier for PAs from other states to practice in Pennsylvania.
 
Each of these measures will improve public health in its own right. But taken together, they also enhance Pennsylvania’s competitiveness for federal rural health funding, ensuring our communities receive every dollar to which they’re entitled.
 
I invite you to join me in sponsoring this important legislation.