{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://gianforte.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/gianforte-urges-action-telehealth-increase-access-affordable-care", "Gianforte Urges Action on Telehealth to Increase Access to Affordable Care, Specialists", "2019-10-24", "2019", "2019-10", "Republican", "House", "MT", "Greg Gianforte", "G000584", "gianforte.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "At a committee hearing yesterday, Congressman Greg Gianforte urged lawmakers to expand access to high-quality, affordable health care by prioritizing telehealth.\nGianforte cited challenges rural communities face with access to health care.\n[In Montana,] we have a lot of space and not many practitioners. We don't have specialists. Telehealth is one way to bring those to these rural communities so they can maintain the viability of our critical access hospitals, Gianforte said.\n\nView video of Gianforte's remarks HERE\nGianforte called on Congress to work toward expanding telehealth services.\nCongress should focus on leveraging both federal funds and lessons learned so that those who need access most have it  particularly folks in rural areas, Gianforte said. We should prioritize efforts to expand telehealth access and fully realize the potential it has to provide services to all our seniors with access to reliable, high-quality care.\nAt the hearing, Gianforte asked Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, about a national telehealth strategy.\nI think there's been some focused effort on this in rural communities. A lot of the problem is that even if telehealth services are available, they may not have broadband access, Verma said. Telehealth is a great example of innovative technology that can really go a long way to improve access and to improve health care and outcomes, and so would love to continue to work with you on that issue.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://gianforte.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/gianforte-urges-action-telehealth-increase-access-affordable-care"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7846471853554249, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}