{"id":207872,"date":"2026-07-15T17:19:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=207872"},"modified":"2026-07-16T07:56:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:56:48","slug":"rural-healthcare-legislation-introduced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/07\/15\/rural-healthcare-legislation-introduced\/","title":{"rendered":"Rural healthcare legislation introduced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>COLUMBUS \u2014 State Representatives Roy Klopfenstein (R-Haviland) and Mark Hiner (R-Howard) recently introduced House Bill 969 \u2013 legislation to revise the composition of some local boards of health, specifically in rural areas of Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"210\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Roy-Klopfenstein-1-23-2023.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-162418\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Roy Klopfenstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cOhioans largely depend on their local Boards of Health to protect the public\u2019s safety and respond to emerging health challenges,\u201d said Klopfenstein. \u201cThis legislation helps address the changing landscape of medicine by allowing highly qualified nurse practitioners to take on the critical responsibilities of board members.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When qualified people are willing to serve, government shouldn&#8217;t stand in the way,\u201d said Hiner. \u201cPhysician assistants and certified nurse practitioners have the medical expertise local boards of health need, and this bill removes an outdated barrier that has made those positions harder to fill.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>House Bill 969 works to address the ongoing challenges that rural health care facilities face with having a physician present. This legislation would require that at least one board member be a physician, physician assistant, or certified nurse practitioner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This bill awaits a committee assignment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff\/submitted information COLUMBUS \u2014 State Representatives Roy Klopfenstein (R-Haviland) and Mark Hiner (R-Howard) recently introduced House Bill 969 \u2013 legislation to revise the composition of some local boards of health, specifically in rural areas of Ohio. \u201cOhioans largely depend on their local Boards of Health to protect the public\u2019s safety and respond to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-23 16:12:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207872"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207909,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207872\/revisions\/207909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}