Robi McAfee

This bill would be an enormous help to hospitals, especially rural facilities who have difficulty recruiting and retaining physicians. A crucial change in this version is that physicians do not have to be located in an underserved area to receive a waiver-- they must simply treat patients from underserved areas. It is extremely difficult for physicians to physically locate in underserved areas because they have no access to the technology necessary to support them in providing decent patient care. Patients still must drive to a hospital for CT scans, MRIs, and many other diagnostic tests. While the underlying intention was a good one, in practice it does little to help underserved patients. This Improvement Act is a vast improvement and cuts through the Kafka-like red tape and in the end achieves the original purpose: to provide better access to quality care for rural patients.