Helping Rural Health Centers

The GOP budget, which was passed on Monday by the House, rejected millions of dollars from the federal government. This money was slated to assist Montana in maintaining it’s quality schools, roads and heath systems.

$35 million of the money the extremist Republicans rejected was set to assist rural health systems upgrade their technology to better meet the needs of their patients. This would help rural hospitals in Montana to better communicate with each other in order to ensure their patients are not receiving duplicate services or unnecessary, invasive procedures.

Today, Governor Brian Schweitzer called a press conference, where he was joined by approximately 50 rural hospital administrators, to discuss these cuts. At the press conference, he told the story of when his mother was injured. She want to the hospital near Georgetown Lake and had a series of tests and procedures run. Medicare covered the costs of those test. However, when she returned to Helena and went to the hospital to examine her injuries further, they ran many of the same tests and Medicare once again paid for those services.

The Governor used this example to highlight a problem that would be eliminated with the upgraded technology. The $35 million used to implement the system would quickly pay for itself by stopping Medicare from paying for the same tests twice.

The Governor also noted that the rejection of these funds will be devastating to jobs in these rural communities. These funds would have created 504 jobs in these communities. These jobs would have been a huge financial boon that these towns will not see without these funds.

The GOP maintains they rejected the funds as a means to help the federal government balance their budget. This excuse doesn’t hold water. These rejected funds do not go back to the federal bank account. Instead, these funds will go to other states to improve their health care system, making Montana’s health system less competitive.

The Governor urged the Senate to reinstate these funds for the sake of our rural communities and our state’s economy.