Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4040. There have been a few silver linings that we have seen in the pandemic, and definitely telehealth has been one of them. I will submit, I am personally thankful for this bill because I will say, maybe, perhaps I am the only sitting Member of Congress who, as a physician, has actually used telehealth. In my surgical practice, I see patients from 2 hours north, 2 hours south, and sometimes 5 hours east out on the eastern North Carolina coast. So many of my patients who come from rural eastern North Carolina can't even afford gas in the inflationary environment we have to even travel these distances, much less sometimes across town. While this bill is a good start, it is a very, very good start, it does not go far enough, and that is why I, with Dr. Burgess and Congresswoman Herrell, introduced a bill to permanently extend telehealth for federally qualified health centers and rural health centers. These are the medical practices that take care of our poorest and the most at-risk patients. These individuals need to be able to access telehealth because they have to travel long distances and don't have the resources that they need to be able to access physician care. I subsequently urge my colleagues to support this initiative and urge them that we can do much more.”