WASHINGTON -- Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., and other members of the House rural caucus introduced a bill on Wednesday aimed at improving health care quality and access in rural areas.

"There are those in Washington, D.C., that do not understand the health care needs of rural America," Rehberg said at a steamy outdoor press conference. "We deserve every opportunity to have the same access to affordable and timely health care."

Rehberg said continuing a rural outreach and network grant program would be especially important. The grants originally were a pilot program in Montana that expanded to the whole country, he noted.

The program allows American Indians in Fort Peck to work with hospitals throughout the nation for unique diabetes care and other special needs, he said.

It also allows people in Harlowton to team up for medical aid through telemedicine and networking, Rehberg said. And the program allows rural doctors, who may serve several counties, to earn their continuing education credits without having to leave their patients, he said.

"Through the kinds of grants given through this program, they have the ability through online training to get their continuing education," he said.

Reps. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., and Greg Walden, R-Ore., who chair the House Rural Health Care Coalition, authored the bill. They vowed to attach it to whatever health legislation next reaches the House floor.

The Health Care Access and Rural Equity Act of 2007 would boost Medicare payments to rural health clinics. It also would authorize $20 million to $30 million annually for grants to rural providers for implementing health information technology, such as electronic medical records.

The bill would ensure that rural Americans are represented on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent federal body that advises Congress on issues affecting Medicare.

It would require prompt payment to rural pharmacies by Medicare prescription drug plans. Reimbursement to pharmacists would be mandated within 30 days for paper claims and 14 days for electronic claims.

The bill would provide some flexibility in the current 25-bed-per-day cap on critical access hospitals. It would increase access to mental health services by permitting marriage and family therapists and licensed professional counselors to treat Medicare patients.

The measure would create a rural health quality advisory commission. That body would develop and help implement a national plan to improve rural health quality through five rural demonstration projects.

It would reauthorize the rural outreach and network grants, which go toward demonstration programs usually lasting up to three years for new ways to increase access to health services.

It would also extend through 2011 rural health provisions of the Medicare Modernization Act and the Deficit Reduction Act that are scheduled to expire. The provisions allow Medicare payment adjustments for doctors practicing in under-served areas, rural ambulance providers, rural home health agencies and certain classes of rural hospitals.

A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate. That bill was named in honor of the late Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo.