U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran’s district has so many rural areas that it takes 69 counties to make up his district.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise when Moran turns to farmers to make an analogy for what scares him about Congress.
“It bothers me greatly to see such short-minded decisions in DC,” Moran said. “I wish that they would look at things like a farmer. When farmers are making decisions about how to keep their farm or ranch, they don’t make short-minded decisions.
“They are conscious of the past, about how their parents and grandparents kept it,” Moran said. “At the same time, they have an eye to the future. They want to keep it going for their kids and grandkids. They look for long-term solutions.”
On his trip to Pittsburg Friday, Moran said the health care arena, more than any other, would rely heavily upon those long-term decisions. From speaking to the Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee to spending time at Mt. Carmel Regional Medical Center, health care was never far from Moran’s agenda.
“A good way to gauge the future of a community is to analyze its access to health care,” Moran said.
Thanks to the telemedicine unit Moran toured Friday, that access has improved greatly over the past couple of years. Members of the Midwest Cancer Alliance demonstrated the equipment — which was purchased thanks to funding that Moran helped secure — by showing Moran a mock workup of Mt. Carmel CEO Jonathan Davis. In the demonstration, Davis and his “physician” were able to converse with a doctor over teleconference while giving the doctor information about Davis’s heart and pulse.
Davis said the technology could be used in a variety of ways, but added that it came in especially vital with cancer patients who could gain access to top-notch cancer physicians without having to travel long distances. Davis said they were currently developing ways to use pharmacy consults for areas without pharmacists as well.
Cutting down on those distances was a must to help people in rural areas receive care, Moran said. Nearly as important, Davis said, was finding a way to help Mt. Carmel overcome the current 340B plan deficiency. Under the plan, hospitals are compensated for medicine at a rate relating to their number of Medicaid hours. But the hospital’s designation also plays a part, meaning that tertiary care centers like in Joplin earn reduced rates that Mt. Carmel does not.
Davis said Mt. Carmel’s non-qualification cost it between $1.5 and $2 million per year.
“(Moran) has championed that cause in the past,” Davis said. “That’s money that could go right back into the facility, to purchase things that would help with patient care. It really would benefit everybody.”
Moran also said there was a need to discover ways to cut down costs raised by doctors in order to prevent malpractice suits. He referenced a person who received $10,000 worth of tests, some on his heart, because a surgeon didn’t want to be left vulnerable while operating on the man’s foot.
Moran came out in support of community health centers, saying that they helped to catch the people who fall through the cracks.
“If you want to be practical about it, it also saves money,” Moran said, “because otherwise, they wind up in the emergency room.”
Overall, Moran said there were several things he wanted to see in a health care plan, including: A recognition of the patient-doctor relationship and an emphasis on local doctors being able to make decisions, instead of “somebody in an office” far away; provisions for rural health care; ways to help family doctors diagnose problems; items to help community health centers; options for insurance health savings accounts; and an emphasis on wellness, fitness and dietary plans, along with preventative care.
Health care wasn’t the only issue that Moran touched on during his trip. At the Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday Coffee, he spoke on everything from education to U.S. Highway 69.
Moran said he was also against No Child Left Behind, stating that students were already being assessed before the bill came out, and disagreeing with what he called its central premise that “99 percent of us are alike.” Moran also said he didn’t vote for any of the stimulus bills or bailout plans, citing problems with the lack of infrastructure represented in the plans.
“We are spending way beyond our means,” Moran said.
And not in the right places, Moran said. He said that Kansans, more than most states, relied on highways to get around.
“We have to travel long distances,” Moran said. “It’s a way of life for us.”
As part of that way of life, Moran said the expansion of Highway 69 should be a priority. He cited the need to attack the project incrementally, in that it was too large a project to knock out in one blow.
“Every mile closer that they get, that next mile becomes that much easier,” Moran said.
Blake Benson, Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce president, said that was the strategy the Chamber took with the highway.
“That has been some of what our focus has been—to try and get something tangible to show for all of our years of effort,” Benson said. “We want to get it to a point where they say, it makes sense to finish this.”
Benson said Moran seemed to have a strong understanding of Kansans’ issues.
“He really seems to be one of us,” Benson said. “Some people want to try and explain Washington to us. But that’s not what we want. We want them to leave here with an understanding of our issues and problems, and I think he’s done that.”
PITTSBURG —
