Improving Health Outcomes in Rural Oklahoma

Rural Oklahomans face a set of unique challenges accessing quality health care. I‚ve introduced a few bills over the past week to address these needs and improve health outcomes in the Second District.

To combat the opioid epidemic that is ravaging our communities, I‚ve introduced the E-Prescribing Parity for Controlled Substances Act to expand the use of electronic prescriptions and create more stringent barriers to accessing Schedule II drugs. According to the Department of Justice, most fraudulent prescription opiates are obtained through doctor shopping, forged prescriptions, or theft. Widespread adoption of electronic prescriptions would dramatically reduce the occurrence of doctor shopping and prescription pad theft. Fentanyl is flowing through our southern border, worsening the opioid epidemic, and contributing to record-high overdose deaths. This bill can protect those vulnerable to or currently struggling with opioid addiction when they are in a medical setting seeking care.

I‚ve also introduced legislation to reauthorize a key grant program that supports state health facilities across the country and improves rural health care. The State Offices of Rural Health were created to help deliver affordable, accessible health care to the underserved communities of our country. Since their establishment, they have played an integral role in improving the health of rural America. The Oklahoma State University‚s Office of Rural Health was established in 1991 and continues to work with local communities to help ensure their health care infrastructure is economically viable. My bill will reauthorize State Offices of Rural Health like this one and ensure that these offices have the financial resources they need to improve information-sharing, technical assistance, and care delivery in rural health settings.

Finally, as many of you know, our emergency medical services (EMS) providers are often the difference between life and death in rural Oklahoma. Unfortunately, there is a 30 percent turnover rate of full and part-time EMTs and paramedics across the country that can be attributed to pressures from the pandemic along with low pay and poor benefits. These staffing shortages, combined with skyrocketing costs to purchase equipment and fuel, are forcing EMS agencies to make difficult decisions, including whether to reduce or even cease operations. My bill, the Supporting Our First Responders Act, will create a new grant program under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to help EMS agencies with hiring and retaining qualified staff, training reimbursements, facility upgrades, and more. This program will provide a federal funding stream so our EMS providers can remain fully operational in rural America.

I urge Speaker Pelosi to bring these three pieces of legislation to the House floor. Oklahomans deserve access to quality health care, and we must ensure our rural communities are not left behind.