ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Liberal’s hospital will soon be getting some significant dollars from the federal government.

Thursday, U.S. Senator Dr. Roger Marshall announced a major Rural Health Transportation Program (RHTP) grant of about $1 million will be coming to Southwest Medical Center, one of 10 anchor hospitals in Kansas through the program.

“Anchor hospitals will provide additional services for surrounding rural hospital, including remote patient monitoring and a rural residency program,” Sen. Marshall said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “These dollars are part of the larger RHTP program, which I designed and championed to support rural health care across Kansas and the nation.”

Having previously served as a doctor and hospital CEO in Great Bend, Marshall understands the unique challenges rural clinics and hospitals face ever day.

“That is why I fought for this funding by designing the RHTP with Dr. Oz, fighting for its passage in the Working Family Tax Cuts Act and writing directly to CMS in support of Kansas’s application,” he said. “Thanks to those efforts, I was able to secure over $200 million total for Kansas, the sixth highest allocation nationwide.”

Marshall said he has also fought to ensure Kansas hospitals are receiving their fair share of Medicaid dollars.

“By working with CMS, I was able to bring $1.3 billion in new money to hospitals across the state, with $140 million of that money going directly to our Critical Access Hospitals,” he said. “I will always advocate for better access to health care in Kansas, and I look forward to seeing these dollars help provide high-quality care to even our most rural patients.”