{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://franken.senate.gov/?p=news&id=3001", "West Central Tribune: Sen. Franken heads up rural health talk", "2014-12-09", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "MN", "Al Franken", "F000457", "franken.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Sen. Franken, Co-Chair of the Senate Rural Health Caucus, has kicked off a new rural health initiative to identify the top health care needs of patients and providers in rural Minnesota and to discuss innovative ways to address those health issues in our rural communities. The West Central Tribune reported on the first in a series of discussions:\n \nPerhaps some rural hospitals could just provide emergency room services and drop full hospital services.\nMaybe medical schools could recruit more rural students and government could increase money available to forgive student loans to people who practice in rural areas.\nAnd it may be a good idea to stop paying medical providers just for performing medical procedures and, instead, pay them based on their success with patients.\nThose and other ideas were the beginning of a conversation U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., launched Friday with rural health experts as he tries to find fixes to a myriad of rural health care problems.\nFranken expects the discussions with health experts to last throughout his new six-year term. He has been named co-chairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus.\n \nEarlier this year, Sen. Franken introduced comprehensive legislation to bolster rural health care delivery systems. He is also author of legislation that would help rural veterans get the care they need. To read the full article, click here.", 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": ["http://franken.senate.gov/?p=news&id=3001"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.338000874966383, "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"}