Press Releases

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development has awarded a grant of $5,118,100 to help the Virginia Consortium to Advance Health Care in Appalachia make telemedicine and health care resources more accessible, by expanding regional networks that will share resources, training, and educational opportunities, for people in rural Virginia. Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) issued the following statement:

“I applaud USDA Rural Development’s award of $5,118,100 for expanded health care and telemedicine services in Southwest Virginia. With this grant money the Virginia Consortium to Advance Health Care in Appalachia will be able to help even more individuals in Virginia’s most rural areas get the health care they need.”

Congressman Griffith has worked for years to expand telemedicine in Southwest Virginia. Serving on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over health care and telecommunications, telemedicine has been a large focus of his work. Last Congress, he served as a co-chair on the Subcommittee on Modernization, a part of the Healthy Future Task Force formed by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, to prepare health care policies for this Congress. A large focus of that subcommittee was safeguarding and maintaining expanded telehealth access. Since then, he has supported legislation advanced out of the Energy and Commerce Committee that expands access to telehealth for employers and questioned multiple experts on how to better expand telehealth access in rural areas.

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