Griffith Invokes Memory Of His Friend Who Passed During COVID To Discuss Importance Of Telehealth

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During a House Energy Committee hearing in July, Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) spoke about the importance of telehealth invoking the death of a friend during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Transcript

00:00Gentleman yields back. We'll now begin questioning. I ask that members not begin a new

00:03question to our witness as their five minutes is about to expire and would encourage members to

00:08use that process where they can submit written questions for the record. I now recognize myself

00:13for five minutes. Dr. Chen, in your written testimony, you mentioned our country will have

00:16a shortage of over 87,000 primary care physicians and nearly 210,000 nurses by 2037.

00:24And these shortages are not evenly distributed. They are especially acute in rural areas like

00:29the area I represent. I understand there are common challenges shared by multiple types

00:34of communities. Given this disparity that you highlighted, would it make more sense to better

00:38target our Title VII and Title VIII resources to include geographic need instead of just

00:45looking at that based on race or ethnicity as some of the programs are currently operating?

00:53Thank you for the question, and it is a very good question, particularly as I sit here next

00:57to the head of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. Rural health workforce faces significant-

01:04Yeah, if you could speak up just a little bit.

01:05I'm sorry. Significant and very unique challenges, and it does take intentionality in addressing rural

01:13health workforce shortages. I would say Tom Morris is probably one of the people that I work the most

01:19with at HRSA to coordinate some of our programs. However, there are ongoing workforce challenges in urban

01:28and in suburban communities. For example, out of that 87,000 primary care physician shortage that we're

01:34projecting, well, 18,000 of that is in rural communities. 69,000 is actually in non-rural communities.

01:42And so it really does require that we consider all communities and all communities facing those challenges.

01:48I appreciate that. And you mentioned National Health Service Corps and the Nurse Corps in your opening

01:54statement. And I got one of these curious questions that comes to me when witnesses are testifying.

02:00Did you grow up in the D.C. area?

02:02I did. Okay. Yes. Because one of the things I love about the- I call it the Northern Exposure

02:11Model that the National Health Service Courts, and for those who don't know, it's an old TV show where

02:15a doctor goes to Alaska because he needs to pay off his student loans and he goes up there for the

02:20five-year commitment. And it was a nice show, but it also shows how sometimes you go to another place

02:27and you end up staying. And that's why I was curious as to what area you had originally come from.

02:31I was thinking maybe you came to D.C. because of the National Health Service Corps,

02:35but we're glad you're here. That said, do you think we need to authorize more funding for the

02:40National Health Service Corps and the Nurse Corps in order to expand those opportunities for rural

02:44and underserved areas? We defer funding decisions to Congress, of course. However, as I mentioned,

02:51the National Health Service Corps is able to award about 50 percent. The Nurse Corps is only able to

02:58award about six percent of all new applications in a year, so there is a lot of opportunity there.

03:05Yeah, and of course, this committee only can do authorization. We can't do the actual expenditure.

03:09That goes to appropriations, but I appreciate that. Mr. Morris, love you talking about telehealth.

03:15I've always loved telehealth, and in fact, I carried the House version of the Telestroke Bill when it first

03:19came forward. The resource centers, the telehealth resource centers, which we are looking to reauthorize

03:26in the bills today, serve a vital role across the country, especially rural areas like my district.

03:30The University of Virginia is currently the resource center for my district in all of the Mid-Atlantic.

03:35Does HRSA distribute resources based on need, or are the allegations the same for each center?

03:40For our telehealth network grant program, like many of our programs, it's a combination of those things.

03:48Certainly, need is a key factor in it, but we also want to make sure they have a viable work plan to

03:53move forward, and that they have the personnel necessary to carry it out, so it's a combination.

03:57Okay, I appreciate that. The University of Virginia has experienced a 24 percent increase in telehealth

04:03visits from their program from fiscal year 24 to fiscal year 25. As we look to extend telehealth

04:11flexibilities and coverage, do you think that we need to expand the number of centers that we have,

04:18thus reducing the geographic footprint that each center serves?

04:24Well, thank you for the question. You know, it's interesting, you know, we've been focusing on

04:28telehealth in rural areas for more than, you know, 30 years, and your record goes back. I think I

04:32talked to Karen Rubens yesterday that it, you know, back to the mid-90s when you were advocating for

04:37this. And so, you know, with the pandemic, we saw the benefits of telehealth universally. And so,

04:44the technology is getting less expensive each year. You can now use a personal computer. And so,

04:49we're moving less from a hub-and-spoke model to a distributed. And so, the more access points,

04:54the better. It can be in your home. It can be in the clinic. It's a continually evolving technology,

04:59but it's certainly being tailored more to the patients. So, the more access points, the more

05:04access. All right. I appreciate that. And it is, we all lost friends. I lost a dear friend in the

05:09COVID crisis. The one thing that came out of that was health care providers suddenly realized that

05:15telehealth was not as alien as they originally thought. And it was greatly expanded. And we should

05:21continue that. I see that I'm out of time. I was about to start a question. And I can't do that. I said that

05:27myself. So, I yield back. And now,

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