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Senator John Thune accepting CTeL's 2006 Telehealth Leader of the Year award from Avera McKennan's Mary DeVany;
Senator with Bob Waters; and Senator Thune's Legislative Aide Mollie Zito with Mary DeVany.
5th Annual Telehealth Leadership Conference
March 8, 2006
Prepared Remarks of South Dakota Senator John Thune
Thank you very much Mary and the Center for Telehealth and E-Health Law for presenting me with this award today. I am honored to accept it and want to say a special thank you to Jackie Eder-Van Hook, Bob Waters and Spencer Perlman for all of their hard work last year. It was really a team effort.
In 2004, the United States spent $1.9 trillion or $6,280 per person on health care. Sixteen percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004 was spent on health care. Up from 13.8% in 1993 and 9.1% in 1980.
Not including the cost of the Medicare Modernization Act, Medicare spending rose 8.9% to $309 billion in 2004, up from 6.6% in 2003. Total Medicaid spending over the next five years will be $1.115 trillion.
I hear from many constituents about the high cost of health care. Concerns about the cost of health care are not limited, however, to the people of South Dakota. These concerns span across state lines and across the minds of people of all different ages. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the issues of access and cost of health care.
My state of South Dakota is rural. Forty-six out of our 66 counties are classified as medically underserved areas -- areas that have insufficient health resources - manpower or facilities - to meet the medical needs of the population. This poses a significant challenge in providing health care to the 750,000 residents of South Dakota.
Providing high quality affordable health care will take the cooperation of both the public and the private sector. The use of technology in the delivery of health care has been a proven method in providing quality care while reducing cost.
I believe that telehealth is not only an important component of health care in rural states like South Dakota, but as this conference shows, important to patients and health care providers throughout the United States. It is an innovation that promises greater access and higher quality health care with reduced costs.
Last year, I was the lead sponsor of an amendment to the Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill that added $3 million to the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) bringing the total funding for OAT up to $6.888 million (before the 1% across the board reduction included in the Defense Appropriations bill).
This additional funding will carry out programs and activities under the Health Care Safety Net Amendments of 2002. Specifically, the $3 million will be divided between three programs:
I was pleased to be a part of this important effort and thank all of you who contacted your Senators and Representatives asking for support of this amendment. As I said earlier, it was truly a team effort.
I also would like to tell you about my legislation S. 1733, the Fostering Independence Through Technology (FITT) Act. The FITT Act requires the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to create demonstration projects that would encourage home health agencies to utilize remote monitoring technology. These technologies must enhance health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries and reduce spending under the Medicare program.
The pilot projects will be conducted in both urban and rural areas and at least one project must be conducted in a state with a population of less than one million individuals. The Secretary is required to specify the criteria for Medicare beneficiaries that can participate in the pilot projects and develop a performance target for home health agencies participating in the pilot projects. This target will be used to determine if the projects are enhancing health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries and saving the program money.
Each year the home health agencies participating in the pilot will receive an incentive payment based on a percentage of the Medicare savings realized as a result of the pilot projects. The incentive payments in the aggregate, however, may not exceed the amount that the Secretary estimates would be expended to home health agencies if the pilot projects had not been implemented.
Technology is improving each and every day. Breaking down the barriers that prevent wider adoption of telehealth will improve our system of care and lower the cost of health care for individuals across the country.
The practice of telehealth brings medicine to people -- people who live in medically underserved areas and people who are too frail or too ill to leave the comfort of their homes. I believe that it time for Congress to tackle the legal, financial, and regulatory barriers that are preventing the implementation of technology into the health care field and I look forward to working with my colleagues and the whole telehealth community to accomplish this goal.
-Senator John R. Thune
Contact:
Senator John R. Thune
South Dakota
383 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-2321
Resources:
Fostering Independence Through Technology (FITT) Act, S. 1733
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s1733is.txt.pdf
