IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Senator John Thune Honored As 2006 Leader of the Year
WASHINGTON, DC – The Center for Telehealth & E-Health Law (CTeL) presented South Dakota Senator John Thune with its 2006 Telehealth Leader of the Year award during its Fifth Annual Telehealth Leadership Conference held in Washington, DC, March 6-8, 2006. The award was bestowed upon Senator Thune for his “leadership and continued support of telehealth.”
“We are delighted to recognize Senator Thune for his leadership. The Senator is committed to bringing healthcare into the 21st century through the use of health information technology,” said Jackie Eder-Van Hook, Executive Director of the Center for Telehealth & E-Health Law. “Thune has been a true champion of telehealth, remote monitoring legislation and funding during the past year.”
“In this era of modern medicine, telehealth is an important innovation that has the potential to provide greater access to high-quality health care for all Americans. Telehealth – such as two-way video conferencing and remote patient monitoring – may reduce costs for patients, insurers, businesses and governments throughout the country,” Senator Thune said. “By using telecommunications and information technologies, telehealth has the ability to provide health care services at a distance to patients in rural states like South Dakota, as well as remote, isolated or even devastated areas across the country.”
Robert J. Waters, the Executive Director of the Home Care Technology Association of America and a Partner and Chair of the Telehealth and Health IT practice group at Gardner Carton & Douglas LLP said, “John Thune is a champion for telehealth. Over the past year, Senator Thune and Senate co-sponsors, Brownback (R-KS), Burns (R-MT), Chaffee (R-RI), Cornyn (R-TX), Conrad (D-ND), Crapo (R-ID), and Talent (R-MO) have successfully added legislative language to the FY 2006 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill, which increased funding for Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Office for the Advancement of Telehealth by $10 million to fund telehealth network grants, telehomecare demonstration projects, and licensure innovation, while the amount was later reduced in conference to $3 million, it was one of the few appropriations success stories in 2006. Recognizing the value of telehealth as an important part of his health IT agenda, President Bush further solidified the increase by including $7 million in funding for OAT in his 2007 Congressional budget request.“
“Senator Thune also introduced remote monitoring legislation in the Senate. We are hopeful that his colleagues in the Senate will choose to co-sponsor the FITT Act (S. 1733) , which establishes pilot projects under the Medicare program and incentivizes home health agencies to utilize home monitoring and communications technologies, and pass the legislation this year,” said Waters. The US is facing a population crisis as 77 million baby boomers begin retiring in only 5 years causing public policy experts to predict an increased demand for health care services.
“The Telehealth Leadership Conference (TLC) is an exciting 3-day conference that provides an opportunity for telehealth leaders and those interested in offering e-health services to hear and interact with telehealth, public policy, and health IT experts. The TLC is the only national conference dedicated solely to public policy issues in telehealth. We are delighted to be able to present Senator Thune with this award during this important meeting,” said Jackie Eder-Van Hook.
ABOUT CTeL. The Center for Telehealth & E-Health Law, formerly the Center for Telemedicine Law is a proven leader in providing education and analysis on telehealth, e-health, and emerging technologies. CTeL's mission is to overcome the legal and regulatory barriers to the utilization of telehealth and related e-health services.
For more information contact jackie eder-Van Hook at 202.230.5090 or jackie@ctel.org.
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Center for Telehealth & E-Health Law
1301 K Street NW, East Tower, Washington, DC 20005 | 202.230.5090 Main | 202.230.5303 Fax | www.ctel.org