House committee tasked with examining rural health care access holds first meeting in Southwest Virginia

A team of state delegates descended upon Southwest Virginia this week to kick off the first meeting for a new House Select Committee on Advancing Rural and Small Town Health Care.

Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico County, who chairs the committee, and a panel of 11 other legislators made the drive to Tazewell County, where they toured three health care facilities over two days before meeting with leaders in workforce development, telehealth, hospital administration and others.

The committee, created by House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, is tasked with exploring the barriers to health care in rural Virginia and creating a list of five actionable items or recommendations that could be introduced during the 2025 General Assembly session.

In rural areas, limited broadband can hinder access to telehealth. Traveling to health care facilities poses its own challenges due to long distances and limited transportation options, Scott wrote in a letter to the clerk of the House of Delegates when creating the select committee.

Members of the House Select Committee on Advancing Rural and Small Town Health Care

• Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico County, chair
• Del. Bobby Orrock, R-Spotsylvania County, vice chair
• Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax County
• Del. Candi Mundon King, D-Prince William County
• Del. Nadarius Clark, D-Suffolk
• Del. Joshua Cole, D-Stafford County
• Del. Kannan Srinivasan, D-Loudoun County
• Del. Amy Laufer, D-Albemarle County
• Del. Israel O’Quinn, R-Washington County
• Del. Ellen Campbell, R-Rockbridge County
• Del. Danny Marshall, R-Danville
• Del. Otto Wachsmann, R-Brunswick County

These challenges can lead to poorer maternal and infant health outcomes, higher rates of suicide, higher rates of adult diabetes, decreased life expectancy, increased risk of suicide and deaths from drug overdoses, Scott wrote.

Patients in rural areas also tend to be older, with more health issues, and to rely on Medicaid and Medicare. These state and federally funded insurance programs, however, typically reimburse less than the actual cost of care and lead to tight operating margins for rural health systems, exacerbating workforce shortages.

“Virginia’s rural counties and small towns face unique challenges in the 21st Century. One of these challenges is quality accessible health care, the kind of health care that Virginians have come to expect in the more populous regions of the Commonwealth,” Scott wrote.

The panel will visit three rural communities before November, one each in Southwest, Southside and the Eastern Shore.

“We could have virtual meetings, but there’s a lot to be said for driving out here and seeing it,” Willett said.

Representatives from five statewide organizations presented Tuesday on topics such as health care workforce recruitment and retention challenges in rural Virginia, telehealth, the lack of transportation options and child care services, social determinants of health, and access-improvement initiatives that have worked in the region.

The overall focus of the meeting addressed workforce recruitment and retention, which will be a priority for the select committee going forward, Willett said.

In 2022, legislators voted to appropriate funds to study current and projected workforce shortages in the state. Representatives from the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority opened the meeting by presenting a brief overview of the study’s findings.

While there are hospitals in Southwest Virginia that have residency slots open for budding doctors, many of the slots are underutilized because not enough graduates want to train in the region, according to Wendy Welch, executive director of the Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium, who spoke at the meeting. What’s more, when doctors do complete their residency in Southwest Virginia, most leave the region once they can practice independently, Welch said.

The consortium proposed that lawmakers consider legislation that would allow teaching medical centers to use funds from the Department of Medical Assistance, which supports residency programs, to hire and retain skilled faculty.

The select committee aims to create a list of achievable and affordable initiatives like this to add to its list of recommendations for the next legislative session, Willett said.

The focus for the next two meetings has not been determined yet, but Willett said he learned of some unique challenges that rural communities face, such as transportation challenges and dental care deserts, that could be addressed in future meetings.

The post House committee tasked with examining rural health care access holds first meeting in Southwest Virginia appeared first on Cardinal News .