Ivey Names Greensboro Sen. Bobby Singleton to Rural Healthcare Group
Greensboro Democrat State Senator Bobby Singleton is one of ten state lawmakers selected by Gov. Kay Ivey to serve as a member of the Rural Health Transformation Advisory Group. Ivey signed Executive Order 741to officially establish the group yesterday.
As the state continues to struggle with rural health issues and as rural healthcare is threatened by higher premiums due to the congressional debate over the program known as Obamacare, the executive order points out that the state's, "...rural communities face persistent disparities in access to care, workforce capacity, health outcomes, and healthcare infrastructure."
“The creation of the Rural Health Transformation Advisory Group enables Alabama to hit the ground running once the state’s new comprehensive rural healthcare strategy is greenlighted by the Trump Administration,” Gov. Ivey stated when she signed the order. “The members of this group will help ensure our programs initiate positive transformations to the way Alabamians receive quality healthcare and that those transformative investments and policies are sustainable.”
The group is comprised by five members of each chamber of the Alabama Legislature as well as the director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), plus the division chief of ADECA’s Federal Initiatives and Recreation Division (or the Division administering ARHTP), who shall serve as secretary.
Earlier this year, Governor Ivey named ADECA to serve as Alabama’s lead agency for the Alabama Rural Health Transformation Program (ARHTP). She also unveiled the project narrative, " Despite the current trajectory of Alabama’s rural healthcare ecosystem, higher quality care and improved health outcomes are within reach for Alabama’s 1.6 million rural citizens. The ARHTP will stabilize essential services, strengthen provider networks, expand healthcare access through innovative telehealth/teleconsulting and reimagined workforce pipelines that bring services and training directly to rural communities, and redesign rural health delivery systems around modern community needs."
Besides Singleton, other members of the advisory group are Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, Senate Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, Senator Greg Albritton, Senator Clyde Chambliss, Senator Donnie Chesteen, Representative Anthony Daniels, Representative Jamie Kiel, Representative Rex Reynolds and Representative Pebblin Warren.
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