House panel urges bold changes for rural health

Proposals aimed at stopping the decline of rural health care include a fundamental change in CON procedures.

An influential task force of Georgia House members has approved a set of bold proposals to bolster rural health care in the state.

The recommendations from the House Rural Development Council include expanding insurance coverage through a Medicaid “waiver” project and making a fundamental change in the state’s licensing laws known as Certificate of Need.

The report’s proposals, approved Wednesday, also include streamlined billing for health care services; requiring nursing homes to have telemedicine capability; and allowing expanded responsibility for health care providers who are not physicians.

The CON proposal, in particular, is already generating rumblings within Georgia’s hospital industry. The CON laws, though relatively little known to the general public, play a big role in how the state’s health care business operates.

Rural health care problems have become a prime focus of Georgia political leaders over the past few years. One big issue is the constant financial trouble afflicting rural hospitals.

Six rural hospitals have closed in Georgia since the beginning of 2013, though two of them have reopened as downsized facilities. In addition, six of the state’s 159 counties have no physician, 63 counties are without a pediatrician, 66 without a general surgeon, and 79 without an OB-GYN. The medical provider shortage is expected to deepen, the council report said.

The council, which held 18 meetings in 11 communities, also made recommendations to boost the rural Georgia economy on the issues of general workforce, broadband internet access, development and education.

But state Rep. Terry England R-Auburn, co-chairman of the group, said Wednesday at the council’s meeting in Milledgeville that health care was “the No. 1 topic we’ve heard throughout the state and (in) all our meetings.”

All the issues troubling rural Georgia are intertwined, England noted. But he declared, “If health care is not available in a rural area, economic development will never happen.”

The report expressed the woes of rural Georgia in stark terms. “In addition to the aging of rural Georgians, rural populations on the whole are sicker, have less or no access to prevention and services, are more likely to suffer from mental illness and chronic diseases, have higher rates of teen pregnancy, and higher mortality rates,” it said.