Recognizing National Rural Health Day

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize November 21 as National Rural Health Day.

Nearly 60 million Americans call rural America home. It is a great place to live, to work, and to raise a family.

To ensure the vitality and vibrancy of rural America, investments in infrastructure, technology, and healthcare are critical. Americans in every corner of the Nation deserve access to reliable, quality healthcare, but rural America faces its own unique health challenges that need to be addressed.

Sadly, rural Americans are more likely than those in urban areas to die prematurely from heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke, the Nation's five leading causes of death.

Rural America is no stranger to healthcare struggles, including long distances to the closest hospital, many uninsured or underinsured residents, and a larger number of aging residents with chronic conditions.

Another issue is simply the lack of doctors and providers. There are only 40 physicians for every 100,000 people in rural America. This leads to unserved patients and overworked medical professionals.

One way to address these issues is through telemedicine. Telemedicine can reduce healthcare barriers, increase access, and bolster convenience for millions of Americans.

Telemedicine is critical in ensuring increased access to care for Americans who live many miles away from a hospital or a doctor's office. It can also make a difference in the lives of limited-mobility Americans, like those who may be elderly or living with different types of disabilities.

Another way to improve the health of rural Americans who may be considered low-income is to address out-of-pocket costs for Medicaid expenses.

Something that needs to be addressed for seniors in not only rural America but also across the country is the misuse of direct and indirect remuneration, or DIR, and how it has impacted the part D drug plans. Over the years, DIR has become a catchall for pharmacy fees, which has unfairly shifted additional costs onto Medicaid patients.

While progress has been made with the 2018 Medicare part D pricing rule, there is still much more to be done. That is why I cosponsored H.R. 1034, the Phair Pricing Act. This bill directly addresses necessary reforms to DIR fees by doing four key things.

First, the Phair Pricing Act will require all price concessions between a pharmacy and a pharmacy benefits manager be included at the point of sale to decrease patient costs.

Second, the bill will realign market incentives to ensure patients have access to and receive the best possible care.

Third, the Phair Pricing Act will direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a working group of stakeholders to create quality measures based on a pharmacy's practice.

Lastly, the bill would ensure pharmacy benefits managers disclose all fees, price concessions, and programs to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Mr. Speaker, rural Americans deserve the best medical care available, and we can improve options for them and for all Americans through commonsense, bipartisan solutions like investments in telemedicine and legislation like the Phair Pricing Act.

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