(KTEN) — Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday introduced the Equal Access to Specialty Care Everywhere Act of 2024 — EASE — aimed at enhancing access to specialty care in rural areas through telehealth.

The law would create a virtual provider network to ensure that any Medicare, Medicaid or CHIP patient, regardless of location, can receive specialty care when and where they need it.

The Republican senator visited Ada last, joining with Oklahoma Senate Majority Leader Greg McCortney to announce funding for a stand-alone cancer center at Mercy Hospital in Ada to address the need for quality care close to home.

"My parents are obviously aging a little bit, and they have spent a little more time in hospitals," Mullin said. "Being someplace they're familiar with — where loved ones can be around them — is vitally important to all care, and there's nobody that knows that better than the community cancer center in our backyard where cancer touches all of us."

AARP Oklahoma has recently worked to address the health care needs by installing multiple telehealth pods at local libraries across southern Oklahoma.