A Senior Vice President with the center, and have the distinct pleasure of working with and overseeing our health care project. We have a very full agenda. Let me get a few logistics out of the way quickly. To this newdjusting way of conducting meetings and events. We hope everything works out as it goes through and think the Production Company for helping us put this on. For those of you who have joined , you willplatform receive a message shortly from bailey,ur staff, morgan in the chat box function with a link to the report. For the viewers, the cspan viewers and others who wish to get a copy of the report, you can go to our website bipartisanpolicy daughter, and a eventsll be on the bpc page under the health section. Later this morning, you will have an opportunity to submit your questions to our Task Force Members vie the q and a function at the bottom of your screen. To the purpose of this event, personally coming from a rural area of indiana with our family farm still operational, this is a personal issue with me. Over 126 hospitals have closed since 2010. An estimated new the 560 hospitals were at risk of closing, even before covid19 outbreak. Dr. Susan turney is the chief executive of the Marshfield ClinicHealth System in wisconsin. A system that we work with at bpc. Recently was quoted the Rural Health Care was in a crisis before this pandemic, and that funding to stabilize systems today is critical so we can continue to survive. We are hopeful an agreement can be reached in congress, even in the senate, and maybe later today. That will add additional funding to our Hospital Systems that are so in dire need of assistance. Particularly those in rural areas at the outset, we would like to thank the Helmsley Charitable trust for its work we have done with the rural task force. We watched this project over a year ago. Long before covid19 was an issue. We believe many of the recommendations today can help stabilize rural hospitals during this Current Crisis and better support the Rural Health Care system post crisis. Cochaired and was olivia snow, he will hear from. Along with two other cochairs, former governor Ronnie Musgrove of mississippi, and Tommy Thompson of wisconsin. The bp staff and Task Force Members visited rural hospitals in New Hampshire and iowa, maine, tennessee, vermont, even wisconsin. Analso have the insights of honorary Bipartisan Congressional Task force on Rural Health Care, including senators Chuck Grassley of iowa, cana smith of minnesota, bill cassidy of louisiana, angus king of maine, congressman Jodey Arrington of texas, and congresswoman taurus small of new mexico. Senator grassley has not been able to join us this morning, but has given me a statement to read. That will be followed by a video from congresswoman small, and one from senator cassidy. Before i turn it over to the director of the Health Project for discussion with members of the task force. Statement. Ssleys as a Solutions Oriented organization, the Bipartisan Policy Center has the leadership bench from which to help shape the Rural Health Care debate. I welcome and encourage the bpc advocacy efforts that bring a range of policy options to the table. As chairman of the Senate Finance committee, i have in working over the past year to develop a targeted set of commonsense medicare payment policies that help isolate Rural Communities provide reasonable access and needed medical care as close to home as possible. I will continue leveraging my leadership positions to champion innovative, costeffective, and highquality Rural Health Care policy solutions. I will review the policy options released today carefully. It is my hope that these recommendations will spur more dialogue among the unique challenges facing our Rural Health Care delivery system. Lawmakersportant as develop Meaningful Solutions and Work Together to have a bipartisan path forward. Cross Party Coalitions are the best way to turn targeted Rural Health Care solutions into law. I ask them to work with me to help build that kind of Bipartisan Coalition as i work on formulating policies that will get more lawmakers on board in washington. The Rural Health Care matters. Many Rural Communities are struggling to Keep Health CareServices Available to their residents. This is especially true with the pressures of the ongoing nationwide fight covid19. The sacrifices and efforts to stop the virus have shut down the u. S. Economy and life as we know it this virus has and will continue to invade small towns and big cities. One thing we can count on is our rural hospitals and providers are standing guard on the front lines ready to care for the People Living in their own communities. Even as the devastating effects of the Public Health emergency deal a blow to the economy and exhaust health care professionals, communities banding together to help neighbors in need in ways big and small. Americas entrepreneurs, medical scholars, innovators, data scientists, and captains of industry are collaborating to our civic organizations, economic institutions, and all levels of government to stop the spread, save lives, and solve albums. We need to harness that same energy to make sure rural providers are equipped to address the unique temperature needs of immunities now and in the future. Togetherin and pulling the resilience of the american spirit will guide us to better days ahead. Senator grassleys statement. At this time, we will have a video from congresswoman taurus small from new mexico. I guess it is grassley. Thank you for joining the bipartisan policy for this first so a virtual event. The Task Force Report and policy recommendation. Communities across the country are facing unprecedented time. We are having this fight to keep families safe and their lives together. All of america is hurting right now. Many Rural Communities are hurting. The start of the Public Health emergency, i have fought for emergency funding for Rural Health Care facilities, expanding telehealth in our rural areas, and protecting the Rural Health Care world. Ive also join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and demand federal accountability to our Rural Community and calls for the administration to establish a rural covid19 task force. This Public Health crisis only heightens the need for bipartisan collaboration with a solution. As we continue to fight the spread of covid19, partisan politics aside and with the party line, pass legislation to our Rural Community. Covid19 has also shown the importance of continuing this work, even after our community prices. Challenges like access to food, reliable broadband, Health Care Must be addressed to ensure we are saving families no matter where they live i introduced isolation to incentivize medical professionals and expand teleHealth Services. The fight for rural families will continue. The Bipartisan Policy Center preimposes on Rural Communities with the creation of the world health task force. Recommendations are critical for any policy. Core health care and deliver solutions. Thank you for joining the bipartisan policy today. I look forward to working with many of you in the future. Was senator cassidy appearing instead of congresswoman torres. We are all learning this new technology. Hopefully we can work out some of these bugs. Now could we try to have senator cassidys video cued up . Bill cassidy here, a doctor, but also u. S. My medical practice i used to work in a hospital. That included many that had to come from our away from Rural Communities. Then i realized these folks have transportation. A lot of folks in Rural Communities relying on others just to say they may or may not have transportation. Challenges,f the but how do we improve access and care to those in Rural Communities . This has been highlighted by the Novel Coronavirus epidemic. Although right now, the Rural Communities have been relatively unscathed, i saw an article in the New York Times in which we begin to see increasing numbers of cases in the Rural Communities. Preserveenge is how to increased access, improve care in Rural Communities. The future is now. Those communities struggle. Whether or not you are in the Rural Community. Health care is too high. Deductibles on these change plans are extremely high. The cost of medications are very high. If you look at diabetes in the rural areas, more of them are going to be diabetic. The cost of insulin will be a particular problem. Recruito difficult to providers to rural areas. Of aconomic Fortune Community decline, there is appeal to a spouse. They have another career where they work if there is an economic decline, which means your workforce gets older. Kids grow up and move away. Have more, you economic decline, because you dont have a young doctor to attract a family with the assurance of good health care. You need to reverse that somehow. Statistically, those in rural areas are older, not just the workforce, but everybody. A little bit older and more chronic disease. So we have a challenge. How to preserve access to health care in rural areas, improve it to raise it up. What are we attempting to do . The Novel Coronavirus epidemic is doing a lot of tragedy. It has disrupted our economy. There might be good things that come out of it. Expanding the use of telehealth. That is wise. Now a provider can communicate with the person across town, across the state, and deliver services. We had that capability before in rural areas because of the need to implement this. They are going to scale. Going to scale would be beneficial. We are making more use of home. Evaluate them. D telehealth,d use of it may be physically seeing the patients, but they can monitor Blood Pressure with a Blood Pressure cuff, or oxygen. Those at home 100 miles away from the doctor that have to see if there is an issue consent home health to the home and have the condition addressed and the patient never needs to come in. If a patient in a rural area for transportation, maybe they did not have transportation, we kind of eliminate that as an issue of expanded use of remote monitoring, telehealth,. Arer this current law, we allowing standard use of telehealth. Something have to be with a videoconference, it can be a smart phone in which somebody speaks to the doctor this way, and it is communicated on the smartphone. That may or may not stay in place after the coronavirus, but i think we are becoming more innovative on how to use current technology. Atre is a special need maternal health. They cannot be as good for those women delivering children. We have to address that is a special case. Theres a lot of effort to do that. Im sponsoring some of that in federal legislation. Continued by a variety of circumstances to attempt to preserve our health care in the rural area and improve. One thing we do is draw the attention of leaders and policymakers and those who impose policymakers. So i think you for your leadership. We also have to exploit. We have to understand in a way which unless you have in there, you may not understand. We have to understand someone who lives 50 miles away from the call that is 40 years old may not be able to get to the doctor. That fundamental lack of understanding, the circumstances of a poor persons life who of what werural area are attempting to do. We have to come up with novel financing plans. Theres been a lot of attempts. Example, through the Affordable Care act organizations to reduce the calls for a person. Those folks are in the rural area. They should be sharing with the rural hospitals. You need to preserve the rural hospital so the patient has a place to go if there is an emergency. A place to go to get labs done. It also provides employment for the economy. Did i say she doesnt have good access . This brings the care closer to her. The mission of the rural hospital is there still needs to be sharing through financial policies. Decreased, benefits and allows to keep the doors open. I think there has to be ways of delivering health care. Involve Public Health. Forhousand children hepatitis b. We bring vaccinations to the classroom. No cost to the parents and teachers. Vaccinated the children at school. We brought the health care to the student. We have to think of other ways to bring the mobile unit. So that the person drives 50 must to get the mammogram, she can have it through a mobile unit. I think you have the concept. I thank you. Our usual goal is to improve access, approach health care in the rural areas. It is important for the patients , important for the economics in the rural area. If theres one thing the coronavirus taught us, we are in it together. I would also add it acknowledges we are in it together. Thank you. Mailing, it is up to you. Good morning, everyone. For joining us. I would like to introduce our panel who is going to help us understand what in the report. We will go over the highlights of the report area the five analyst with us are members of the task force. We have two of our cochairs with us. Majority leader tom daschle. Also a cofounder of the bpc. We have senator olivia snow of maine, who is also a cochair of the task force. Shes also a senior fellow and board member at the bpc. Former congressman tom hockey of iowa with us. Also chris jennings, founder and president of jennings policy strategies. You will also remember he was in the clinton and obama white houses working on health care,. He is a senior fellow at bpc. Belinsky,ve gail senior fellow at project health. A former administrator of the Health Care Financing administration, which we now know as the centers for medicare and medicaid services. Repeat a couple of the housekeeping points he went over. Question at any time during this event, you may go ahead and ask. You will click on the q and a feature and submit your question. I will go ahead and ask the panelists as many questions as we have time for. You will also notice there is a chat function in zoom. On chat, you will not be speaking with one another , but what you can use chat for is to receive information from us at the bpc. For example, our staff has posted the link to our report. Report. If you would like to see the link for a report, open chat, you will see the url for that and see the report. The other thing i wanted to tell you is you have either gotten into zoom, but the other way to watch this webinar is through youtube. The way to do that is to go to bpcs website. Bipartisanpolicy. Org. Click on events, and you will see a link to watch this. At this time, i will turn it over to our Task Force Members who will go through the highlights of our report. We will start with senator daschle. Thank you very much. Announced the release of our recommendations on the Rural Health Task force. For the last year, my colleagues and i have worked to find Common Ground to stabilize and improve the challenges facing Rural Communities. Stress ofe the covid19, these problems were urgent. As a senator representing south dakota. The long understood population is older. The people in north america are less likely to have insurance. As covid19 spreads across the country, a situation for Rural Communities is more dire than ever before. Nationsh dakota is the number one hotspot for the coronavirus. Because of the latest outbreak. And it shows how fragile the Rural Health Care system really is. More than 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2010. Today, nearly 600 are at risk of closing. That leaves people in rural areas with no choice but to drive long distances to get the health care they need. Too often, they simply forgo that care completely. Add covid19 to the mix, and struggling rural hospitals are now desperate. The coronavirus has significant financial has caused significant financial pressures to these hospit