Doctors, Nurses and Other Medical Personnel

• Increased the Medicare reimbursement rate for Alaska by 35 percent – Passed 2008.

• Obtained $125,000 for Anchorage Project Access, a program in which doctors donate their services to those most in financial need (2009).

• Obtained $100,000 for United Way of Anchorage to continue the Alaska 211 phone number that connects individuals with health and human resources 24 hours a day (2009)

• Convened Health Care Town Hall Meetings in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Wasilla, and Soldotna as well as a Statewide Tele-Town Hall to hear from Alaskans about the proposed health care reform bill – Summer 2009

• Obtained $7.3 million in funding (2005, FY06 Agriculture Appropriations Bill) for the Mat-Su Valley Hospital Water-Sewer Line Grant to assist in building the necessary water and sewer lines for the new Mat-Su Valley Hospital and Medical Center.  The hospital opened in 2007.

• Worked to make the VA Mat-Su Community Based Outpatient Clinic a reality (2008)

• Secured  $1 million for facilities and equipment fort Ketchikan General Hospital (2009)

• Secured $1 million for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Consortium, Bethel for facilities and equipment (2009)

• Co-sponsored and worked to improve the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to provide assistance to Native Alaskans (was finally included in Health Care bill which she opposed)

• Provided $10 million to the Denali Commission for Health Facilities (2009)

• Secured $350,000 for Providence Health System for a  physician recruitment and retention initiative (2009)

• Secured an amendment to the Tribal Law and Order Act to direct Congress’s research agency to evaluate the resources of rural health clinics to collect forensic evidence.

• Authored and won passage of the Amchitka Nuclear Workers Compensation Aid bill and pushed for final regulations to expand and improve provisions of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act to better serve Alaskans affected by nuclear tests at Amchitka Island (2004).

• Secured an exemption from U.S. Department of Transportation rules to allow medical oxygen to be shipped to locations in the bush without being packed in enormous, blowtorch-proof boxes, which are impractical for transportation in rural Alaska.

• Won inclusion of amendments to the Indian Health Care Improvement Reauthorization and Extension Act to: enhance construction of sanitation facilities; and authorize repayment of travel costs for family members who escort elders and young children to larger medical centers for emergency care.

• Fought for and secured passage of legislation that permanently authorized the Community Health Aide program to ensure basic medical care is available in remote villages; provided more comprehensive behavioral health services; authorized expansion of long-term care by IHS and tribally-operated hospitals including hospice care, assisted living, community based care, and elder home care.

• Sponsored the FASD resolution recognizing fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and raising awareness every 9th day of the 9th month (Sept) for 9 months where women can prevent FASD by simply not drinking during the nine months of pregnancy.

Download
Go Back