(Audubon, Iowa) – The Audubon County Secondary Roads Department reports Yellowwood Road will be closed to thru traffic, beginning Monday, May 13th. The closure will take place between 190th Street and 210th Streets, due to bridge repairs.
The road will remain closed until the repairs are complete. 
CLASS 1A SQM 3 AT EARLHAM
7. Coon Rapids-Bayard (55 points) (State Qualifier)
•Shuttle hurdle relay — Lauren Cook, Aubrey Hofbauer, Amelia Eddy, Malia Clayburg (1:11.53)
8. Ankeny Christian (30 points)
9. Orient-Macksburg (26 points)
10. Melcher-Dallas (24 points)
11. Glidden-Ralston (5 points)
12. Paton-Churdan (1 point)
CLASS 1A SQM 5 AT FREMONT-MILLS
CLASS 1A SQM 6 AT MOUNT AYR
1. Wayne (133 points)
2. Nodaway Valley (118 points)
•800 sprint medley relay — Allie Cornelison, Maddie Weston, Annika Nelson, Emma Lundy (1:54.34)
•4×100 meter relay — Grace Britten, Maddie Weston, Emma Lundy, Annika Nelson (51.26)
•4×200 meter relay — Annika Nelson, Grace Britten, Maddie Weston, Emma Lundy (1:48.48)
3. Mount Ayr (116 points)
4. Martensdale-St. Marys (87 points)
5. Stanton (75 points)
•Hannah Olson, 100 meter hurdles (15.92)
•Lauren Johnson, long jump (16-03.50)
•Shuttle hurdle relay — Kyla Hart, Lauren Johnson, Elly McDonald, Hannah Olson (1:07.47)
6. East Union (47 points)
7. Moravia (44 points)
8. Murray (41 points)
9. Seymour (26 points)
10. Southeast Warren (17 points)
11. Lamoni (16 points)
12. Moulton-Udell (4 points)
13. Diagonal (3 points)
13. Mormon Trail (3 points)
CLASS 1A SQM 10 AT WESTWOOD
1. Woodbine (122.5 points)
•Katy Pryor, 200 meter dash (26.73) & 400 meter dash (1:00.30)
•Amanda Newton, shot put (35-09.00)
2. Tri-Center (115 points)
•Quincey Schneckloth, 400 meter hurdles (1:07.61)
•Jozie Payne, long jump (15-04.00)
•800 sprint medley relay — Kaitlin Kozeal, Lucy Elsener, Jozie Payne, Tess Casey (1:54.12)
•4×400 meter relay — Isah VanArsdol, Jozie Payne, Quincey Schneckloth, Tess Casey (4:10.68)
•4×800 meter relay — Quincey Schneckloth, Sophia Hazen, Isah VanArsdol, Tess Casey (10:15.18)
3. Logan-Magnolia (106 points)
•Allysen Johnsen, 1500 meter run (5:11.26) & 3000 meter run (11:09.33)
•Distance medley relay — Zoe Heim, Kylee Fogelman, Haydn Hall, Madison Sporrer (4:26.00)
4. Boyer Valley (81 points)
•Morgan Hast, 100 meter dash (12.78) & high jump (5-02.00)
6. IKM-Manning (55 points)
12. Ar-We-Va (12 points)
13. West Harrison (10.5 points)
CLASS 2A SQM 8 AT TREYNOR
2. Treynor (82.33 points)
•1st Place: Jadyn Huisman, discus throw (122-04)
•2nd Place: Distance medley relay — Averie Carollo, Rylee Hemmingsen, Madeline Knsipel, Alyssa Kulesa (4:25.85)
3. Clarinda (79 points)
•1st Place: Jerzee Knight, 200 meter dash (25.75)
•1st Place: Kylie Meier, long jump (17-00.00)
•1st Place: 4×200 meter relay — Jerzee Knight, Alexa Barnes, Kylie Meier, Bailey Nordyke (1:47.89)
•2nd Place: Jerzee Knight, 100 meter dash (12.50)
•2nd Place: Elaina Hesse, high jump (4-10)
4. AHSTW (58 points)
•1st Place: 800 sprint medley — Caitlyn Dills, Loralei Wahling, Brooklyn Buck, Bella Lamp (1:51.44)
•2nd Place: 4×800 meter relay — Ava Paulsen, Makenna Paulsen, Delaney Goshorn, Bella Lamp (10:00.77)
•2nd Place: 4×400 meter relay — Delaney Goshorn, Ava Paulsen, Makenna Paulsen, Bella Lamp (4:11.93)
7. Shenandoah (53 points)
•1st Place: Chloe Denton, 100 meter hurdles (16.20)
•2nd Place: Hailey Egbert, 3000 meter run (11:29.03)
•2nd Place: Lynnae Green, shot put (36-11.50)
8. Underwood (51.5 points)
•2nd Place: 4×100 meter relay — Tieler Hull, Kinsley Fergusonn, Ainsley Roberts, Haley Stangl (51.27)
9. Audubon (37.33 points)
10. Kuemper Catholic (36 points)
•1st Place: Ellie Sibbel, shot put (37-07.00)
11. Red Oak (30 points)
•2nd Place: Jocelyn O’Neal, 400 meter dash (1:01.13)
12. Missouri Valley (18 points)
•2nd Place: Maya Zappia, discus throw (119-00)
CLASS 3A SQM AT ATLANTIC
2. Glenwood (139 points)
•1st Place: Danika Arnold, 200 meter dash (25.85)
•1st Place: Grace Berglund, 3000 meter run (10:35.98)
•1st Place: 800 sprint medley — Zoie Carda, Allison Koontz, Megan Hughes, Brooklyn Schultz (1:52.05)
•1st Place: 4×100 meter relay — Zoie Carda, Elaina Dougherty, Danika Arnold, Allison Koontz (49.69)
•1st Place: 4×200 meter relay — Zoie Carda, Brooklyn Schultz, Allison Koontz, Megan Hughes (1:45.50)
•2nd Place: Allison Koontz, 100 meter dash (12.44)
•2nd Place: Danika Arnold, 400 meter dash (58.85)
•2nd Place: Grace Berglund, 1500 meter run (4:56.10)
4. Atlantic (87 points)
•1st Place: Distance medley relay — Morgan Botos, Lila Wiedersein, Nicole Middents, Claire Pellett (4:22.33)
•2nd Place: Jayci Reed, 100 meter hurdles (15.62)
•2nd Place: Claire Pellett, 800 meter run (2:26.90)
•2nd Place: Shuttle hurdle relay — Morgan Botos, Lila Wiederstein, Adler Bruce, Jayci Reed (1:09.72)
6. Harlan (65 points)
•1st Place: Lindsey Sonderman, Harlan (4:52.53)
•2nd Place: Lindsey Sonderman, Harlan (10:42.80)
•2nd Place: Distance medley relay — Kami Stork, Samantha Ineson, Aubree Wegner, Lindsey Sonderman (4:25.23)
7. Denison-Schleswig (51 points)
8. Creston (31 points)
•2nd Place: 4×800 meter relay — Maylee Riley, Hope Henderson, Avery Staver, Payton Davis (10:01.06)
•1st Place: Olivia Ausdemore, high jump (5-00.00)
•1st Place: Jordyn Matiyow, shot put (38-05.50)
•2nd Place: Madeline Fidone, 400 meter dash (1:01.89)
•2nd Place: Madelyn Hoss, 3000 meter run (11:03.57)
•2nd Place: 4×400 meter relay — Brooke Nelson, Irelynn James, Addison Holt, Madeline Fidone (4:09.34)
•2nd Place: 4×800 meter relay — Ava Bussey, Delayna Reese, Addison Holt, Madelyn Hoss (9:55.79)
•2nd Place: Distance medley relay — Irelynn James, Madeline Fidone, Brooke Nelson, Delayna Reese (4:18.82)
4. Bishop Heelan Catholic (83 points)
6. LeMars (63 points)
8. Sergeant Bluff-Luton (49 points)
CLASS 4A SQM 2 AT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
4. Sioux City East (93 points)
5. Sioux City North (61 points)
6. Abraham Lincoln (43 points)
•2nd Place: Aubrey Sandbothe, long jump (16-11.50)
7. Sioux City West (33 points)
8. Thomas Jefferson (12 points)
CLASS 1A SQM AT FREMONT-MILLS
Final Team Scores:
6. Griswold 51
CLASS 1A SQM 3 AT EARLHAM
5. Coon Rapids-Bayard (63 points)
•Caden Oswald, 200 meter dash (23.09)
•Cal Heydon, shot put (46-06.25)
7. Audubon (56 points)
•Aaron Olsen, 100 meter dash (11.34)
•Ezekiel Konkler, 800 meter run (2:04.17)
•Distance medley relay — Mason Steckler, Adam Obrecht, Brody Schultes, Ezekiel Konkler (3:44.37)
8. Ankeny Christian (53 points)
9. Glidden-Ralston (29 points)
11. Paton-Churdan (17 points)
12. Twin Cedars (7 points)
13. Melcher-Dallas (4 points)
CLASS 1A SQM 6 AT MOUNT AYR
1. Mount Ayr (134 points)
2. Wayne (121 points)
3. Southeast Warren (78 points)
4. Stanton (71 points)
5. Martensdale-St. Marys (68 points)
6. Moravia (57 points)
7. Lamoni (49 points)
8. East Union (44 points)
9. Nodaway Valley (42 points)
•Trenton Warner, shot put (53-01.50)
10. Murray (22 points)
11. Mormon Trail (12 points)
12. Diagonal (9 points)
13. Moulton-Udell (8 points)
14. Seymour (4 points)
CLASS 1A SQM 10 AT WESTWOOD
1. Woodbine (140 points)
•Landon Bendgen, 800 meter run (2:02.18) & 1600 meter run (4:36.64) & 3200 meter run (10:02.45)
•Landon Blum, high jump (6-01.00)
•4×400 meter relay — Adam Barry, Owen Wingert, Landon Blum, Brody Pryor (3:29.83)
•Distance medley relay — Dillon Reed, Adam Barry, Landon Blum, Landon Bendgen (3:40.55)
3. Logan-Magnolia (99 points)
•William Anderson, 100 meter dash (10.85) & 200 meter dash (22.85)
•4×200 meter relay — Cael Wallis, Evan Roden, Wes Vana, William Anderson (1:32.68)
4. IKM-Manning (97 points)
7. Tri-Center (44 points)
•4×800 meter relay — Brennan Boden, Lincoln Thomas, AJ Harder, Carter Kunze (8:32.71)
9. Boyer Valley (25 points)
10. Ar-We-Va (23 points)
12. West Harrison (11 points)
CLASS 2A SQM 8 AT TREYNOR
1. Shenandoah (96 points)
•1st Place: Brody Cullin, 100 meter dash (11.04)
•1st Place: Titus Steng, 100 meter WC (21.77) & 200 meter WC (42.47) & 400 meter WC (1:27.50) & shot put WC (11-09.50)
•1st Place: 800 sprint medley relay — Hunter Dukes, Santiago Hernandez, Cole Graham, Alex Razee (1:33.22)
•2nd Place: Alex Razee, 400 meter dash (49.92)
•2nd Place: 4×100 meter relay — Hunter Dukes, Alex Razee, Cole Graham, Brody Cullin (43.30)
•2nd Place: 4×200 meter relay — Hunter Dukes, Cole Graham, Santiago Hernandez, Brody Cullin (1:31.28)
•2nd Place: 4×400 meter relay — Brody Cullin, Hunter Dukes, Santiago Hernandez, Alex Razee (3:27.92)
2. Underwood (94 points)
•1st Place: Mason Boothby, long jump (22-04.25)
•1st Place: Maxwell Tiarks, discus throw (166-02) & shot put (53-03.50)
•1st Place: 4×400 meter relay — Josh Ravlin, Riley Sealock, Mason Boothby, Will Buckholdt (3:27.21)
•2nd Place: Mason Boothby, 110 meter hurdles (14.97)
•2nd Place: Shuttle hurdle relay — Mason Boothby, Lucas Bose Jr., Sam Hulsing, Jack Vanfossan (1:00.04)
3. Treynor (89 points)
•1st Place: Brady Wallace, 110 meter hurdles (14.06)
•1st Place: Karson Elwood, 400 meter hurdles (55.82)
•1st Place: 4×100 meter relay — Jett Sornson, Karson Elwood, Drew Meyers, Brady Wallace (42.73)
•1st Place: 4×200 meter relay — Jett Sornson, Drew Meyers, Alek Bain, Cauy Konz (1:31.08)
•1st Place: Shuttle hurdle relay — Brady Wallace, Brock Casey, Cauy Konz, Karson Elwood (59.13)
•2nd Place: 800 sprint medley relay — Jett Sornson, Drew Meyers, Brady Wallace, Karson Elwood (1:34.23)
4. Clarinda (73 points)
•1st Place: Kyle Wagoner, 800 meter run (2:03.46) & 1600 meter run (4:32.39) & 3200 meter run (10:06.20)
•1st Place: Distance medley relay — Kaiden Loop, Kayden Hawley, Cooper Phillips, Kyle Wagoner (3:37.66)
•2nd Place: Karson Johnson, 100 meter WC (24.96) & 200 meter WC (56.06) & 400 meter WC (1:58.05)
6. Kuemper Catholic (72 points)
•1st Place: Benjamin Gerken, high jump (6-03.00)
•2nd Place: Evan Adams, discus throw (165-07) & shot put (50-11.00)
•2nd Place: Jacob Greving, 1600 meter run (4:34.06) & 3200 meter run (10:08.88)
7. AHSTW (61 points)
•1st Place: Luke Sternberg, 400 meter dash (49.75)
•2nd Place: Nick Denning, 400 meter hurdles (57.03)
•2nd Place: 4×800 meter relay — Collin Harder, Caden Geraghty, Chase Wheatley, Caleb Hatch (8:31.48)
9. Red Oak (44 points)
•2nd Place: Brayden Sifford, 100 meter dash (11.17) & 200 meter dash (22.61)
11. Missouri Valley (32 points)
•1st Place: Chris Dworak, Missouri Valley (22.49)
2. Glenwood (146 points)
•1st Place: Andrew Smith, 800 meter run (1:58.10) & 3200 meter run (10:00.85)
•1st Place: Bryant Keller, 1600 meter run (4:31.97)
•2nd Place: Cooper DeLashmutt, 400 meter dash (53.60)
•2nd Place: Andrew Smith, 1600 meter run (4:34.75)
•2nd Place: Bryant Keller, 3200 meter run (10:16.57)
•2nd Place: Chase Razor, high jump (6-03.00)
•2nd Place: Distance medley relay — Tristan Ludwig, Tristan Meier, Victor Cruz, Bryant Keller (3:41.33)
3. Harlan (101 points)
•1st Place: Franz Reisz, discus throw (170-07)
•1st Place: Brehden Eggerss, long jump (22-03.50)
•2nd Place: Cade Sears, 100 meter dash (10.61) & 200 meter dash (21.44)
•2nd Place: 4×100 meter relay — Lukas Francis, Matthew Sorfonden, Brehden Eggerss, Cade Sears (42.06)
•2nd Place: 4×200 meter relay — Lukas Francis, Matthew Sorfonden, Brehden Eggerss, Cade Sears (1:26.83)
4. Atlantic (99 points)
•2nd Place: Colton Rasmussen, long jump (21-07.75)
•2nd Place: Gavin McLaren, shot put (52-07.00)
•2nd Place: 800 sprint medley — Jaice Larson, Jarrett Hansen, Tye Houser, Grant Petty (1:36.46)
•2nd Place: Shuttle hurdle relay — Colton Rasmussen, Grant Petty, Shelton Mualia, Dante Hedrington (1:03.81)
•2nd Place: 4×800 meter relay — Alex Sonntag, Bennett Whetstone, Colin Rudy, Preston Williams (8:27.89)
5. Creston (64 points)
•1st Place: Tom Mikkelsen, shot put (54-04.50)
•1st Place: 4×400 meter relay — Austin Evans, Davin Wallace, Seth Gordon, Brandon Briley (3:27.19)
•1st Place: 4×800 meter relay — Austin Evans, Tyler Riley, Davin Wallace, Brandon Briley (8:26.45)
•1st Place: Distance medley relay — Casen Dryden, Seth Gordon, Brandon Briley, Austin Evans (3:39.70)
•2nd Place: Brandon Briley, 800 meter run (1:59.29)
7. Denison-Schleswig (39 points)
•1st Place: Jake Fink, 400 meter hurdles (54.99)
1. Bishop Heelan Catholic (147 points)
3. Lewis Central (118 points)
•1st Place: Ethan Eichhorn, 800 meter run (1:58.18) & 1600 meter run (4:46.32) & 3200 meter run (10:03.61)
•1st Place: 4×800 meter relay — Marshall Arkfeld, Richard Selken, Jackson Cox, Kade Diercks (8:19.19)
•2nd Place: Kevin Coots, 1600 meter run (4:46.41) & 3200 meter run (10:03.74)
•2nd Place: Garret Rutledge, discus throw (146-08)
4. LeMars (99 points)
6. Sergeant Bluff-Luton (85 points)
CLASS 4A SQM 2 AT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
4. Sioux City East (75 points)
5. Thomas Jefferson (65 points)
•2nd Place: Brandon Bowen, 110 meter hurdles (14.91) & 400 meter hurdles (56.79)
•2nd Place: 4×400 meter relay (3:24.73)
6. Sioux City North (52 points)
7. Abraham Lincoln (46 points)
•2nd Place: Aidan Perez, shot put (48-03.50)
8. Sioux City West (45 points)
(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a man from Grant was arrested Thursday evening, following a traffic stop in the 1700 block of K Avenue. Authorities say 40-year-old Zachary Morrison, of Grant, was arrested for Driving Under Suspension. Morrison was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $491.25 bond.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Officials with Hy-Vee have announced the company will close two stores in eastern Iowa next month. The store on First Avenue NE store in Cedar Rapids will close on June 23rd, opening up a large area of the city without easy access to a grocery store.
Hy-Vee managers told KCRG-TV9 the chain is closing two locations, the Cedar Rapids one and a Waterloo Hy-Vee store on Logan Avenue. Both stores are in areas listed as “High Poverty” according to U.S. Census data. In a statement, spokesperson Tina Pothoff said the two locations have not consistently the company’s financial expectations and sales goals over the past several years. She added, that the employees at those stores will be offered a position at another Hy-Vee store in the area, at the same rate of pay and will retain their existing benefits.
Hy-Vee pointed out that despite the closure, it offers its Aisles Online grocery delivery service to the area. Pothoff also said Hy-Vee plans to open up e-WIC payments to allow recipients of the Women, Infant and Children food assistance to buy groceries online.
The City of Cedar Rapids had given Hy-Vee incentives to build the First Avenue store in 2001 and keep a grocery store in the area, including a 20-year tax increment financing. The Gazette reported the head of Hy-Vee at the time made it clear that the store was not financially viable without the city’s tax incentives.
Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnel said in a statement regarding the closure:
“Hy-Vee’s decision to close their First Avenue store is incredibly disappointing. Generations of customers have relied on this store for their basic needs. It is unfortunate the company is leaving at a time when the nearby neighborhoods are seeing significant improvements and public investment. We anticipate this momentum will continue when combined with efforts like the upcoming First Avenue Micro Area Action Plan community planning process. We know that access to fresh, affordable food is crucial for our community’s wellbeing and we will work with local agencies to meet the needs of those impacted most by this closure.”
Today: Areas of fog this morning, otherwise partly cloudy to cloudy. High near 75. W/NW winds 10-20 mph.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy early, then gradually becoming clear. Low around 45. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Tomorrow: Sunny, with a high near 76. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Tom. Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 51.
Sunday: Partly sunny w/a 40% chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms. High near 80
Sunday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Low around 53.
Monday: A 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms early & then again in the afternoon, otherwise partly sunny. High near 70.
Thursday’s High in Atlantic was 71. Our Low this morning was 42. Last year on this date, the High in Atlantic was 83 and the Low was 58. The Record High was 97 in 2011. The Record Low was 26 in 1966. Sunrise: 6:07. Sunset: 8:27.
(Radio Iowa) – The latest U-S Drought Monitor map of Iowa shows no red areas indicating extreme drought.
DNR Hydrologist Tim Hall says we’ve been seeing red for a long time. “The first time in almost two years that we’ve not had extreme drought somewhere in the state of Iowa,” Hall says. It is a big turnaround, but not all the color has washed out of the drought map. “We still have half the state are so impacted by drought conditions, but that area is shrinking all the time as we get these good rains,” he says.
Hall has continually said we need weekly rains every month to turn things around, and that’s the pattern we’re now in. “We’ve now had five out of the last seven months have had above normal precipitation and that’s exactly the recipe we wanted,” he says, “where you get month over month just above normal precipitation, and that’s what’s really helping us to get out of the drought,” Hall says.
He says depth of the drought is evident in the lack of any major flood issues. “Go back to this winter when we had all that snow in January that melted very quickly and we had no flooding. And we’ve now had a couple of above normal precipitation months, and yes, we got some flooding, but nothing even approaching a widespread or catastrophic flooding,” Hall Says. “So that really points to a couple of things, how dry the soil was, and the fact that the rain we have received has been fairly well spaced out.”
Half of the state’s annual rainfall usually comes in May through August, and Hall says if we are above normal in any of those months, we could go a long way toward pushing all the drought colors off the map.
(Radio Iowa) – Two scientists who played key roles in creating a world seed vault are the winners of the 2024 World Food Prize. World Food Prize Foundation president, Terry Branstad, Thursday, announced Geoffrey Hawtin of Great Britain and Cary Fowler of the United States as the winners.
“They focused their careers on preserving and protecting the world’s heritage of crop diversity and mobilizing this critical resource to defend against threats of global food security,” Branstad says. During the ceremony at the U-S State Department, Branstad says they conserved more than six-thousand varieties of crops and culturally important plants. “Sustaining storehouses of seeds that we need to breed tomorrow’s crops for more nutritious, and climate smart crops,” Branstad says. “They then went on to work to establish the famous Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.”
World Food Prize Foundation President Terry Branstad. (photo from World Food Prize Foundaiton)
The Norway facility is often referred to as the “Doomsday Vault,” and holds one-point-two-five million seed samples in an underground facility in the Arctic Circle. More than anyone else these laureates have together shaped the global system we now have for protecting, sharing, and utilizing crop diversity for the benefit of humanity,” Branstad says.
Hawtin is the founding director and executive board member at the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Fowler is currently the U-S Special Envoy for Global Food Security. The World Food Prize was created by Cresco, Iowa native Norman Borlaug, who received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work that contributed to increases in agricultural outputs which was termed the Green Revolution.
The two will receive the World Food Prize at an event at the Iowa State Capitol building in October.
(Radio Iowa) – For decades, Iowa law has required the title and registration for a newly-purchased or leased vehicle to be filed in the county where the owner of the vehicle lives. A new law going into effect July 1st will let Iowa auto dealers file that paperwork in the county where the dealership is located. Bruce Anderson, president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association, says it’s an adjustment to the way people buy vehicles today.
“You used to go to your hometown local car dealer and that’s where you would shop, but with the advent of the internet online automotive shopping customers are shopping all over the state,” Anderson says. “With some brands, especially with higher luxury brands, there aren’t dealers in every county, so a single dealer might be working with upwards of 40 or 50 different county treasurers.” Anderson says this gives auto dealers a familiar, local point of entry to file the vehicle’s title, register a lien if the customer took out a loan to buy the vehicle and get license plates ordered.
“It should eliminate a lot of delay and make the titling and registration process quicker. Customers should get their plates quicker, their new registration quicker,” Anderson says. “It’s also a plus for law enforcement because instead of having to put this information in an envelope and sending it across the state, potentially have it come back if there’s a discrepancy on postage amounts or something like that. It’s getting the information into the database quicker.”
Anderson credits county treasurers and the Iowa D-O-T for working with automobile dealers to address bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the system for registering vehicle after they’re purchased or lease. The new law will raise various vehicle registration fees by 10 dollars on January 1st of next year. The fees — one of which is just a dollar — were set decades ago when the average price of a new vehicle was 10-thousand dollars.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra is sponsoring a bill to require Medicare to cover over-the-phone tele-health services for another year. That coverage was set to expire on December 31st of this year. “Audio only services are a lifeline to rural communities across the country who still contend with severe lack of broadband access,” Feenstra says. During the pandemic, Medicare began covering patient appointments conducted via video link and over the phone.
Feenstra says many rural residents have no way to make a video connection. He cites a Federal Communications Commission report which found 45 million Americans cannot get broadband with high enough speeds capable of streaming video. “I believe this underscores the need for audio-only telehealth coverage to ensure access to health care for Americans in rural areas,” Feenstra says. “This provision is particularly vital to seniors who shouldn’t have to travel hundreds of miles to receive routine care.”
The U-S House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved the bill yesterday (Wednesday). It allows federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to bill Medicare for telehealth and delays the in-person visit requirement for mental health services for seniors.
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