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Health Care
Ensuring access to quality, affordable health care for North Dakotans is a top priority. As a senior member of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee and Co-Chair of the Rural Health Care Coalition, I have been constantly fighting to improve reimbursements for our rural providers and to make health care more affordable for our North Dakota families and businesses.
This Congress, I helped to enact two pieces of important health care legislation that not only take important steps forward to modernize our health care system, but also expand coverage to needy children. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act invested $19 billion, including at least $49 million for North Dakota hospitals and doctors, to help incentivize the adoption of medical record systems know as Health Information Technology (HIT). When used correctly, HIT can enable providers to both improve quality and lower costs throughout out health care system. Congress also enacted the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, which extended coverage to an additional 4 million uninsured low-income children across the country and nearly 5,000 North Dakota children.
To help address Medicare’s flawed payment system, I have also introduced legislation to reward health systems based on the quality and efficiency of their care, rather than the volume and intensity of services provided. The Accountable Care Promotion Act creates a voluntary shared savings program that provides financial incentives to Medicare providers for coordinating patient care. Based on pioneering research by Dr. Elliott Fisher of the Dartmouth Institute, which demonstrates that states like North Dakota with lower per-patient Medicare spending often provide higher-quality care and better health outcomes, this legislation would rethink a Medicare payment system that promotes overuse. By creating financial incentives to provide better, more cost-effective care, my legislation will help drive down health care costs and improve patient health outcomes.
Rural Health Care Coalition
Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
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