Consumer technology companies have some advice for using tech to better prepare for the next pandemic and generally mitigate health inequities.

The recommendations were the work product of tech companies, health systems, medical device manufacturers, insurance companies, public policy organizations and medical societies.

“The pandemic demonstrated the undeniable value of innovation and tech in the face of a health crisis,” said Consumer Technology Association president Gary Shapiro said. “Many digital health tools that have proven effective in response to the pandemic are still not accessible to many. American lawmakers have an unprecedented opportunity to learn from this crisis and ensure we’re providing every American access to quality care in the digital age.”

Accessibility was a key policy recommendation and will be one of the topics of conversation at the CTA‘s CES in Las Vegas in January.

Following are the key policy recommendations from the two papers:

1) “Federal and state governments should expand broadband coverage to ensure it reaches rural and underserved areas.

2.) “Congress should make select Medicare telehealth COVID-19 Public Health Emergency waivers and flexibilities permanent.

3.) “Congress should pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation specifically covering stakeholders not covered by other privacy laws and regulations regimes (e.g., HIPAA).

4.) “The federal government should partner with industry stakeholders to develop evidence-based guidelines and industry standards for digital health.

5.) “The federal government should establish a national early warning system based on aggregated data from digital tools capable of identifying disease hotspots.

6.) “State and local governments should consider requiring hospitals and health systems to routinely assess a patient’s ability to access digital services and their digital literacy.

7.) “Federal, state, and local governments should develop a network of digital hubs that can train, educate, and support patients and healthcare providers in using various digital health solutions.

8.) “Public and private insurers must prioritize the use of digital health tools to track and manage conditions and treat patients."

The CTA should have an eager audience in the House Communications Subcommittee, which approved a bill that tries to leverage broadband to address inequitable maternal health outcomes on the same day the trade group released two white papers with telehealth recommendations.

Broadband as physician‘s assistant got a boost in August likely due to the rise of the COVID-19 delta variant.

That is according to a monthly telehealth report from FAIR Health, which found that telehealth use was up after two months of decline and that COVID-19 was now among the top five remote diagnoses.

The monthly tracker looks at privately insured people, which includes Medicare Advantage but excludes Medicare fee-for-service and Medicaid.

The FCC has handed out millions of dollars in telehealth subsidies at the direction of Congress. In fact, in August it handed out $41.98 million in its second round of funding for COVID-19 telehealth services.

The survey found that growth of telehealth usage in August was greatest in the South, coinciding with the peak of the delta variant-driven cases in the South. The group suggests the rise was because both patients and providers were looking to reduce the risk of transmission.

While COVID-19 was the the fifth-most-frequent telehealth diagnosis nationally in August, it was No. 3 in the South.

The top-ranked diagnosis was mental health related.

The Federal Communications Commission said it has approved a first tranche of 62 telehealth applications for $41.98 million in its second round of funding for COVID-19 telehealth services.

In round one, the FCC allocated $200 million of CARES Act funding for 539 applications from 47 states, as well as the District of Columbia. 

The money goes to healthcare providers, but then some of it is passed along to broadband service providers. That‘s because the funds can be used to pay for telecommunications and information services, as well as connected devices, so consumer technology companies also benefit from the program.

Also Read: FCC Approves Telehealth Funding, Round 2

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to health care has proven to be not only a national issue, but also a local issue, and it is imperative that every community is given the tools to access this care as safely and effectively as possible," said acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel.

She said the FCC factored in the hardest-hit and lowest-income areas, including tribal areas and previously unfunded states and territories, in deciding how to distribute the initial funds in the $249 million telehealth program mandated by Congress.

The next tranche will go to the next highest-scoring areas, in terms of need, until at least $150 million has been committed.

As the world dealt with the agony of disease, lockdowns, and COVID-19 death over the past 15 months or so, broadband has emerged as a rare bright spot, keeping the world connected, enabling a segment of the workforce to continue to work from home, and for those fortunate enough to have decent broadband access to receive medical care, education, entertainment, and other services. To their credit, broadband providers were able to meet the moment, by utilizing previously planned headroom and by racing to add capacity, largely using node splits and other traditional methodologies.

The two major U.S. cable operators (Comcast and Charter) alone added 3.8 million HSD subscribers in the year ending on March 31, 2021, and cable access vendors CommScope, Harmonic, and Casa had notably strong revenue growth in the last few quarters.

At the same time, analysis by CommScope, which has been assessing the average peak-time busy-hour bandwidth consumption (Tavg) for four North American MSOs for the past years, found that downstream (DS) Tavg increased 32.5% in January 2021 versus pre-pandemic in January 2020. For the same period, Tavg for upstream (US) utilization increased a significant 57%. What is notable, CommScope found, is that the DS:US ratio is trending downward toward 12:1 (from about 15:1). In other words, upstream is growing at a faster rate than downstream, and is expected to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

So, what does this mean going forward? 

The world we will emerge to when the pandemic finally subsides will not look like the pre-pandemic world. Some of the new business models, regulatory developments, and new habits formed during the pandemic will persist in some fashion, and some of the new frameworks and business models are seeking to integrate some of the recent successes going forward. At the same time, the pandemic brought into sharp focus the disparity in access to broadband (commonly referred to as the digital divide), leading governments to provide subsidies and to focus on expanding broadband access to remediate this glaring problem.

The Subsidies

Some of the subsidies and initiatives that seek to mitigate the digital divide:

• The Emergency Broadband Benefit program is a $3.2 billion subsidy for Americans who cannot afford broadband. It provides up to $50/month in broadband subsidy (up to $75/month in tribal areas) and up to $100 toward the cost of a device. Although this is a temporary benefit during the pandemic, some lawmakers are already calling for it to be extended, and some even call it the future of the Lifeline service.
• The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund allocates $20.4 billion over 10 years to bring broadband to under-connected areas. It precedes the pandemic.
• The FCC has also allocated $450 million to fund telehealth during 2021; in round one earlier this year, it provided $200 million in funding, and is in the process of reviewing applications toward disbursing $250 million in additional funding. The funding is primarily for telehealth devices and connectivity.

Although these programs are U.S. focused, other countries are also allocating resources to expand broadband access.

The Demand Drivers

• Work from home (WFH) has garnered significant attention during the pandemic for obvious reasons. As we start contemplating some sort of normalcy, many companies are drawing plans for what’s ahead. The jury is still out, but many companies are beginning to speak to the benefit of showing up to the office, at least some of the time. It is expected that WFM will continue to drive bandwidth utilization but to a lesser extent than was observed during the pandemic.
• In education, although many organizations are developing plans for hybrid learning models, the importance of in-person education, at least in K−12 cannot be over-estimated. Online education will have a modest impact on the growth of bandwidth consumption going forward, but may play a major role in college education and continuing education.
• Health care has seen a substantial transformation. Although some of the changes were already in progress, the pandemic provided an impetus for a much faster transformation, ushering in an era of relaxed regulation and fast innovation. Healthcare’s digital transformation will have significant implications on broadband utilization and business models in the future.
• Streaming will continue to drive broadband consumption, but as people resume in person activities, they are likely to stream less than during the pandemic.

We currently are at an inflection point. The trends that had caused bandwidth consumption to grow substantially over the past few years, while still there, will be supplanted by emerging trends. WFH, although it will decrease meaningfully from the days of the pandemic, will be an important trend to watch. What is even more exciting is the emergence of the home as a major location for health-care delivery. This will have profound implications for broadband service providers.

Liliane Offredo-Zreik is a principal analyst with ACG Research. She covers cable and digital health enablement.

With the war on the pandemic still not won, California’s veterans are at risk of losing access to a mobile internet app, called VA Video Connect, that enables veterans to receive telehealth services without incurring data usage charges. This is a consequence of California’s newly effective "net neutrality" law that flatly prohibits Internet service providers from offering consumers so-called "free data" plans, sometimes also called "sponsored data" or “zero-rated” offerings, unless an entire “category” of supposedly similar services receives the same treatment. 

While government-imposed “net neutrality” mandates may sound superficially appealing in theory, in reality they often harm consumers. In this instance, those harmed may include our veterans.

With free data offerings, access to various Internet content, such as the VA’s telehealth application, is subsidized by the wireless broadband providers or by third party websites and applications. As a result, consumers receive a price break or avoid potential data usage charges. Not surprisingly, the free data programs are popular with consumers, and low-income persons naturally stand to benefit the most. 

For now, California's net neutrality law is the most overreaching in the nation. Its threatened harmful effects should be a cautionary tale, not only for other states, but for the Federal Communications Commission, which likely is considering adopting similar new prohibitions governing Internet service provider offerings. 

According to a March 24 report in Politico, “officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs are privately sounding the alarm that California's new net neutrality law could cut off veterans nationwide from a key telehealth app.” The reason California’s ban on free data offerings likely will impact vets and consumers across the nation is that, unlike traditional voice telephone calls in last century’s analog era, it is highly impractical and burdensome, and in some instances impossible, to segregate interstate and intrastate Internet traffic. Thus, Internet providers, such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Tracfone, and Verizon, that offer the VA Video Connect app, almost always implement uniform nationwide protocols. 

Why would California threaten to make it more costly – and, therefore, more difficult – vets to take advantage of an innovative telehealth program by banning the wireless carriers’ free data programs? Simply put, because of an overly rigid ideological view of what “net neutrality” means. The most rabid net neutrality proponents, including Big Tech companies, persuaded California's legislature that it's somehow wrong for Internet service providers to allow certain content websites and applications, such as the VA’s in this case, to bear some small portion of the massive costs of constructing and operating broadband networks, rather than having consumers bear the entire costs. 

In this view, popular free data offerings supposedly constitute an invidious form of non-neutral “discrimination.” According to this theory, there could be an adverse impact on websites and applications that don’t themselves offer free data programs. An outright ban on these offeringssupposedly protects hypothetical competitors from hypothetical injury from hypothetical discrimination. 

If banning free data apps is a core "net neutrality” principle, then it's one that deserves to be jettisoned. In the technologically dynamic, rapidly evolving, competitive Internet ecosystem, Internet service provider practices should not be categorically restricted based on hypothetical harms. In the real world, free data programs are popular and benefit consumers. The VA Video Connect app is a prime example of such a consumer benefit. 

In light of the embarrassment caused to California by the potential take-down of the VA’s telehealth app, it will not be surprising if the state’s officials reach some interpretative accommodation that creates a “free data” exemption for certain applications, say, those relating to government-provided telehealth applications or “telehealth” sites more generally. That will be good for veterans and perhaps others. 

But the uncertainty that already has been created just serves to illustrate the harm all too likely to ensue when government diktats put Internet service providers into straight jackets that require regulatory contortions to remedy the consumer harm the diktats create in the first place. A regime that requires the government to define and approve specific categories of acceptable websites and apps invites arbitrariness, manipulation, and favoritism. 

The far better course is for Congress, the FCC, and the states to adhere to a policy grounded in Internet freedom that presumptively permits innovative services such as VA Video Connect and other free data offerings. In the event any specific claims are raised that consumers and competition are being harmed, those concerns can be addressed on a case-by-case basis by the Federal Trade Commission or Department of Justice.

Randolph May is President of the Free State Foundation, a think tank in Rockville, Maryland, and Seth Cooper is a Senior Fellow. They are co-editors of the book, A Reader on Net Neutrality and Restoring Internet Freedom.

*This piece was originally published on Real Clear Markets.

The FCC has voted 4-0 to approve the framework for a second round of its COVID-19 Telehealth Program.

That is the additional $250 million (technically $295.95 million) Congress allocated for the program in the CARES Act.

In round one, the FCC allocated $200 million of CARES Act funding for 539 applications from 47 states plus D.C.

Also Read: Rosenworcel Takes Telehealth Field Trip

The FCC said the application window for the new funding round is expected to open by the end of April. The FCC will evaluate all the applications collectively, rather than on a rolling basis. Money will be going to every state, territory and D.C.

Also Read: FCC Seeks Input on Telehealth Funding

"This past year has proven, without a doubt, that telehealth technology is critical to helping address inequities in access to health care services," said acting chair Jessica Rosenworcel. "With today’s unanimous approval of the Report and Order, the FCC remains ready to address these challenges head on."

“I am pleased to approve today’s Order, which extends the COVID-19 telehealth program and adds important transparency to the process," said FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. "In this Order, applicants and other interested parties will be able to see with particularity how their proposals will be evaluated. I am especially pleased, given the disproportionate burden low-income Americans have borne during this pandemic, that we will give significant weight to applications proposing to serve low-income communities."

Starks was particularly pleased that the FCC will direct that the poverty rate of both the county and the census tract will be taken into account when vetting healthcare applicants for the money. Initially it was only going to be at the county level, he said, and thanked his colleagues for agreeing to the change. "In assessing an application, if it would receive more points using the census tract poverty rate instead of the county measure (or vice versa), USAC will award the application the higher points available between the two," he said. " Today’s Order ensures that these areas will not be overlooked," he said.

To say that healthcare has been turned on its head in the last few months is an understatement. We have seen massive adoption of virtual care on an unprecedented scale as patients shy from receiving in-person care for non-COVID conditions and as regulations around telehealth reimbursements are relaxed. By some measures, telehealth use grew eight times in just a few weeks. 

However, telehealth is only the precursor to a seismic shift in healthcare, with virtual care becoming a major component of care delivery. Virtual care delivery has numerous advantages:

Virtual care requires more than a broadband device for telehealth. Enter Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), which is essentially about the collection, transmission, evaluation, and communication of patient health data from electronic devices. The RPM market is exploding. For example, Philips recently acquired BioTelemetry, a provider of remote cardiac diagnostics and monitoring, for $2.8 billion. Dozens of RPM players are vying for a piece of the market; many provide specialized solutions (for example, Bardy Diagnostics for cardiac monitoring), others broader based monitoring (for example, Current Health). Some use AI for predicting medical events, enabling care providers to deliver pre-emptive care.

The significant premise of RPM brings into sharp focus a number of challenges:

These and other challenges point to the need for a provider that has the capability to provide home-based digital management solutions. Such a provider can take on the complex set-up, the on-going management of these solutions, technical (nonmedical) patient (and provider) support. Longer term, they have the opportunity to play a role as an aggregator that coalesces these often disaggregated solutions to provide a secure, single point of truth repository for patient data (possibly using blockchain).

Cable operators and other telecom providers with their feet on the street assets and with access to patients’ homes are well positioned to play a role in the deployment and management of these solutions and over time could develop advanced capabilities to play an even bigger role in this fast-growing market. Some operators, including Telus, are already playing in the IoMT space, which is projected to grow to $285.5 billion by 2029 from $24.4 billion in 2019, at an estimated CAGR of 28%. 

As the FCC prepares to hand out hundreds of millions of dollars more for telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and senior Republican Brendan Carr visited Whitman-Walker Health in D.C. Friday (Jan. 29), which specializes in LGBTQ and HIV care.

Also Read: Rosenworcel Says It's Time to Think Big, and Act

The goal was to "highlight the importance of connectivity in healthcare and learn more about how the facility is using telehealth to serve patients during the pandemic."

“The COVID-19 pandemic is clearly stressing our healthcare system and has presented new challenges for patients seeking care, especially for those from marginalized communities,” said Rosenworcel following the visit. “I join Whitman-Walker Health in saying, as they do: We See You. Through expanded and affordable access to broadband for all, organizations like Whitman-Walker and clinics around the country can continue to grow their telehealth efforts to support their communities.”

Also Read: FCC Seeks Input on New Telehealth Funding

According to Rosenworcel's office, Whitman-Walker stood up its telehealth program last March and since then has provided connected care to 6,500 patients, including for addiction counseling, dental, and mental health services.

Rosenworcel will make access to telehealth a top priority for the commission, she said. At her first public meeting as acting chairwoman Feb. 17, one of the planned presentations will be on handing out the $249.95 million in telehealth funding allocated to the FCC in the COVID-19 relief bill passed by Congress in December.

The FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau is seeking comment on how the FCC should administer round two of its COVID-19 Telehealth Program, which got a $250 million infusion of money from the appropriations legislation/COVID-19 aid package recently approved by Congress.

The FCC wants to know what metrics it should use to evaluate applications and how it should treat applications received during the initial round of funding but did not get funds.

Also Read: Federal Agencies Team up for Telehealth

In round one, the FCC allocated $200 million of CARES Act funding for 539 applications from 47 states plus D.C.

Among the questions the bureau wants answered:

1. "Should we target funding to hardest hit areas and how should the 'hardest hit' areas be defined?

2. "Given the changing landscape of the pandemic in recent months, how should previous, unfunded applications be addressed?" 

and

"[A]re there lessons learned from the initial round of the program that could lead to program improvements?"

"We have already seen the program’s positive impact on expanding access to telehealth services across the country, from health clinics providing bi-lingual telehealth services to rural hospitals connecting with record numbers of remote patients," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "I’m pleased that this new support from Congress will enable us to extend this program into 2021. I am confident that our team at the Commission will work expeditiously to provide additional support for telehealth services through Round 2 of the program.”

Comments are due Jan. 19, one day before the FCC changes to new, Democratic, leadership.

The FCC said it will open up its Connected Care Pilot Program at noon on Nov. 6.

The program will provide up to $100 million from the FCC's Universal Service Fund to healthcare providers to defray the cost of remote healthcare.

Related: Federal Agencies Team up for Telehealth

The three-year program covers "(1) patient broadband Internet access services; (2) health care provider broadband data connections; (3) other connected care information services; and (4) certain network equipment." That equipment does not include end-user devices, however.

“In the past year, connectivity has become an increasingly critical component of delivering health care services in our country,” said FCC chairman Ajit Pai. “Spearheaded by commissioner [Brendan] Carr, our Connected Care Pilot Program explores how universal service support can provide next-level health care to our nation’s most vulnerable populations, including low-income Americans and veterans."

Telehealth technology has been adopted by nearly 50% of physicians’ offices, up from 18% in 2018. Large hospitals are trying to keep non-critical patients at home so as not to expose them to COVID-19 and small physicians are trying to keep their practices in business in the face of reduced revenues. The lack of broadband, however, in rural areas is prohibiting hospitals and clinics from servicing individuals that require medical attention.

The need for telehealth, which is the distribution of health services and information digitally through telecommunication technologies, has opened the floodgates for new policies allowing reimbursements. With safer at home orders partially in place, one-on-one phone or video conference calls used by healthcare professionals for prescription renewals, follow-ups and minor urgent care are now a necessity. 

Broadband Connectivity  

The pressure the coronavirus pandemic is putting on cable providers is unprecedented. When you combine unforeseen challenges brought on by COVID-19 with hefty goals put in place years prior for 5G and 10G deployments, operators are facing more severe capacity and bandwidth issues than ever before. In addition, the need to address improvements in network resilience becomes more critical.  

In response to connectivity limitations, lawmakers are looking for $2 billion to support programs around digital technologies and broadband deployment, especially in rural areas. In addition, experts predict that virtual care is unlikely to go away, even after the current crisis.

One of the primary challenges of deployment is profitability. Providers want to determine a profitable business model as well as a cost-effective service model to best meet the needs of their customers. Today, operators need to be more forward-thinking than ever by focusing on customer fulfillment, minimizing downtime, and controlling costs to remain on track with planned build outs and other upgrades that may be on their roadmap.

Minimizing Downtime

Downtime is an inconvenience to both consumers and providers and worse, it puts patients at risk. As a result of unplanned downtime, surgeries may be postponed, patients may be transported to other facilities for immediate care and switching over to paper records slows down service, especially when younger doctors are not accustomed to working with paper charts.

According to one estimate, unplanned system failures can cost $634 per physician per hour. Meanwhile, according to Dean Sittig, a professor with the School of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, a large hospital may lose as much as $1 million per hour when their Electronic Health Records (EHR) system is down — daunting numbers.

The costs of running an ever-expanding and overburdened healthcare network can only be met with continuous maintenance and upgrades to the network infrastructure. Hospital IT professionals looking to increase their network performance, patient experience and overall profitability often underestimate the importance of their cabling system. By implementing best practices and adopting resilient technologies, IT professionals can help optimize their system and minimize network downtime.

Controlling Costs

IT professionals can better manage their costs by assessing their environment, such as checking wired and wireless access and how they are transmitting data over their different networks, such as LAN, WiFi, cellular, telemetry, etc. Hospitals should also be investing in preventative technologies such as a backup data centers. When creating a complex, data-driven and collaborative ecosystem, IT staff must consider controlling the total cost of healthcare including hardware, public and private cloud infrastructures, and quality of service. This includes moving beyond legacy practices and mindsets and a willingness to embrace trends that will change the way infrastructure and operations teams run and the proficiencies they provide to their organization.

Americans aged 74 and over represent 73 million people in the United States. Many of these people are not computer-savvy, or open to virtual healthcare services, and some struggle with mental and/or physical limitations. Making services easily accessible to caregivers and family members of this aging population is vital and could prevent a life or death situation. 

Telehealth is a chance to meet consumer needs and lifestyles by servicing them at home, in the office or at other convenient locations that minimize disruptions to their daily lives. In addition, those well under retirement age want access to upcoming telehealth benefits, such as lactation support, home sleep study guidance, remote patient monitoring and so much more.

Telehealth is becoming the new normal. Adopting this new standard and technology is not about engaging the latest best practices in telemedicine, but rather about investing in the greater good of the community. Globally, government officials, physicians, patients, IT professionals, and other supporters in the community have been forced to face the unimaginable. With better tools in place and a critical network of industries, we can now all do our due diligence and put our best foot forward for a brighter, safer future. 

Kara Mullaley is community broadband market development manager at Corning Optical Communications.  

The FCC has extended the deadline for its telehealth program recipients to use their money to buy eligible devices and services to the end of the year.

The FCC has given out $200 million in CARES Act telehealth subsidies for healthcare providers to purchase tablets and smart phones and other telehealth provision tech, as well as broadband service. 

Related: Federal Agencies Team Up for Telehealth

The FCC stopped accepting applications July 8 because the money had run out.

Recipients had until Sept. 30 to spend the money, but the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau said Monday (Sept. 28) that it had received numerous requests for extensions citing, among other things, state procurement requirements, and COVID-19- and hurricane-related delays.

The bureau said it expected others could have similar issues. 

"Based on the number of extension requests the Bureau has received and the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bureau believes that extending the purchase/implementation deadline until December 31, 2020, for all COVID-19 Telehealth Program funding recipients is reasonable under the circumstances and is also consistent with the purpose of the CARES Act," the bureau said.

The FCC, Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture are teaming up to tackle rural telehealth at the direction of the President and in the shadow of a pandemic that has lit a fire under that effort.

The three have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate and share information about disparities in rural health care, help ISPs and promote broadband tech to rural areas. The effort, which came at the direction of President Trump in his executive order on access to rural health and telehealth, also includes creating an interagency task force that will meet regularly and make recommendations for the exchange of "agency expertise, scientific and technical information, data, and publications."

"Rural Americans are more likely to die from heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, chronic lower respiratory disease, and strokes than their urban counterparts," the FCC said in announcing the MOU. "Telemedicine plays an increasingly critical part in treating patients, improving health outcomes, lowering costs, and helping health care providers maximize their impact on their communities, especially in rural areas of the United States."

"Increasingly critical" in part because the pandemic has made people less likely to venture out for a physical appointment.

“From the beginning of my tenure at the FCC, I’ve heard and shared the view that telemedicine is a game-changer for rural America," said FCC chairman Ajit Pai. "The COVID-19 pandemic has made the rural healthcare challenge even more serious and has complicated healthcare providers’ efforts to serve rural Americans. More than ever, these areas of the country need enhanced connectivity to provide vital health services to residents."

Congress as part of its COVID-19 aid package gave the FCC $200 million for telehealth connected care services and devices , which it handed out in a matter of weeks, but clearly more needs to be done. 

The FCC has approved the final batch of telehealth fund applications through the CARES Act COVID-19 Telehealth Program. 

The legislation gave the FCC $200 million to go to healthcare providers for remote treatment and diagnostics. 

Related: FCC Approves Telehealth Funding Framework 

That was back in late March. The FCC signaled two weeks ago that it was not accepting any more applications because the ones in the pipeline already would likely more than account for the $200 million. 

The FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau Wednesday (July 8) approved the last 25 applications totaling $10.73 million. Those applications were for rural and urban areas and from coast to coast, said FCC chairman Ajit Pai. 

The FCC has approved 539 applications from 47 states, D.C. and Guam. 

“In late March, Congress tasked the FCC with developing from scratch a new $200 million COVID-19 Telehealth Program to help combat COVID-19, support health care providers, and make it easier for Americans to safely access vital healthcare services,” said Pai. " Credit for this tremendous accomplishment is due to Commission staff who went the extra mile to set up the program quickly and process funding requests promptly but thoroughly..." 

It is not clear how much of that money has gone out the door. Healthcare providers generally make the outlay upfront given the immediate need for equipment and connectivity during the pandemic, then will seek the funds from the FCC to cover those expenses. 

The money goes for laptop, smartphones, tablets, connectivity, network upgrades, videoconferencing equipment, software and more for medical, dental and behavioral health diagnoses and treatment. 

The FCC has issued its 13th batch of telehealth funding approvals. 

The FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau Wednesday (July 1) approved 70 more applications for COVID-19-related funds for equipment and connectivity services totaling $31.63 million. 

Related: FCC Boosts Telehealth Funding

The FCC is no longer accepting applications, saying those in the hopper already would more than exhaust the $200 million Congress allocated for the program in the CARES Act. 

So far, the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program has approved 514 applications over 46 states and Washington, D.C., for a total $189.27 million. 

The money goes to healthcare providers for everything from laptops, tablets and phones to remote monitoring platforms, videoconferencing equipment and network upgrades.

Anticipating a boost in demand for telehealth funding--its the FCC's $200 million in new COVID-19-related CARES Act funding is already spoken for--the FCC pointed out Tuesday (June 30) that there is almost that much more available if needed. 

COVID-19 Related Broadband Funding Bill Introduced

The FCC put out a release saying it was increasing rural health care program funding for 2020, saying there was up to $197.98 million in unspent funds from that Universal Service Fund subsidy that can be used.  

The Wireline Competition Bureau said it had directed the Universal Service Administrative Company, which oversees billions of dollars in telecommunications subsidy programs, to make that money available for funding year 2020. 

Related: Sen. Sullivan Slams FCC Alaska Telehealth Clawback 

The current fund was capped at $604.76 million for 2020, but with the unspent funds added, a record $802.74 will be available. 

FCC chairman Ajit Pai pointed to the fortuitousness of the FCC's action in 2018 "to ensure that the Rural Health Care Program better reflected the needs of and advances in connected care," he said. "Looking to the future, we gave providers more certainty by adjusting the cap annually for inflation and allowing unused funds from previous years to be carried forward," funds that he now called critical in the fight against COVID-19. 

The FCC said it has run through the $200 million in telehealth funding Congress gave it in the CARES Act COVID-19 aid bill. 

The FCC has so far given out over $150 million of that money and signaled Thursday (June 25) that with the applications already in and not yet granted, there is more demand than money left.  

The money has gone to healthcare providers for remote health monitoring, connectivity and equipment.

Related: FCC Approves 12th Tranche of Telehealth Funding

The Wirelines Competition Bureau said that it will no longer be accepting applications. 

The FCC started accepting applications April 13 and starting approving them only days later. 

To date, the COVID-19 Telehealth Program has approved 444 applications in 46 states (plus D.C.), totaling $157.64 million.

Related: Sen. Sullivan Slams FCC Alaska Telehealth Clawback 

"Based on the applications received to date, demand for funding exceeds available COVID-19 Telehealth Program funds and, as a result, the FCC does not want to impose burdens on health care providers who may prepare new applications that cannot be funded under the current appropriation," the bureau said. 

The FCC has now approved an even dozen tranches of telehealth funding applications to help healthcare providers deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Related: FCC Approves Telehealth Funding Framework 

That additional 77 applications for $29.41 million brings the total to 444 applications approved in 46 states and totaling $157.64 million of the $200 million for the telehealth program appropriated by Congress in the CARES Act COVID-19 aid bill. 

The FCC opened the application window April 13 and approved the first applications three days later.  

Related: ADA Says Dentists Should Get Telehealth Funding

The money is going to healthcare providers to buy telecommunications broadband connectivity and devices, both to help COVID-19 patients, including those in self-isolation and quarantine, and others with underlying conditions who don't want to risk a trip to the doctor. 

The FCC has approved its eleventh set of funding applications for the $200 million in telehealth subsidies the Congress approved in the CARES Act COVID-19 relief bill. 

Related: FCC Approves Telehealth Funding Framework 

The FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau said Wednesday (June 17) it had approved an additional 62 applications from health care providers for $23.25 million. The FCC opened the application window April 13 and approved the first applications three days later. 

Related: ADA Says Dentists Should Get Telehealth Funding 

That brings the total to 267 approved applications in 45 states for a total $125.23 million since the program was launched.

Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan is still extremely exercised over the FCC's cut to some Alaska telehealth funding a couple of years back, saying the chairman. 

That came out at the nomination hearing Tuesday (June 16) for FCC commissioner Michael O'Rielly's second term in the Senate Commerce Committee. 

Sen. Sullivan's language was unusual aimed at a chairman of the same party, but his unhappiness with the cuts have had a couple years to percolate.  

Sullivan even blocked an FCC nominees confirmation over the issue.

Liberty-owned GCI said it had to lay off most of a hundred workers last year in part, it said, because of the FCC's cutback.  

"The [job] cuts were a financial decision based on several factors including a stagnant state economy, missed business opportunities, and the ongoing impacts from the FCC’s $28 million cut in funding to GCI rural health care providers," a company spokesperson said at the time. 

Sullivan had a lot to say about the subject at the June 16 hearing. Sullivan said he was strongly supportive of O'Rielly's renomination, then lit into Pai and even suggested maybe the FCC needed a new chairman. 

Sullivan said Pai had "clawed back" with "no transparency or opaqueness Universal Service telehealth programs in my state." 

He said his state had essentially written the book on telehealth "and yet we have a chairman of the FCC that seems hell-bent on collapsing that system in Alaska." 

Talk about telehealth funding cuts sounded a bit anachronistic given the current focus by both the FCC and Congress on telehealth during the pandemic, with the FCC handing out millions of dollars weekly of a $200 million telehealth program authorized by Congress in the CARES Act COVID-19 relief bill and loosening red-tape restrictions on how such money is handed out. 

Related: FCC Telehealth Approvals Top $100 Million

O'Rielly, asked by Sullivan whether he thought that FCC "clawback" had been either fair or transparent, and whether perhaps "a new chairman" would help things, O'Rielly called Pai his "good friend," but said he was not "fully supportive" of those funding cuts and said he did not think the process was transparent or even now understood by the industry players. 

Sullivan was not through. He called the process "unbelievable" and said that the chairman had made commitments on appellate reviews of its decision that have been "ignored" and that the FCC had "made stuff up as they went along." 

He said the FCC was harming some of the neediest people in America and it "just doesn't seem to get it." 

Related: House Dems Say There Are Issues with FCC Telehealth Program

O'Rielly signaled he got it, saying that Alaska was a model of telehealth for the rest of the nation in how efficiently the services were offered. He said the issues with those Alaska carriers ought to be able to be resolved expeditiously," rather than "two and a half years of opaqueness and rope-a-doping my state, Sullivan shot back. 

"Those words are yours, not mine," said O'Rielly, "but I understand the point you're making." 

A spokesperson for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai countered that the FCC was focused on providers, not carriers, including saying the clawback was about money GCI should not have gotten.

"Under Chairman Pai's leadership, the FCC has nearly doubled the budget of the Rural Health Care program," said a spokesperson for the chairman "It has also taken strong action to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in the program because rural health care providers across the nation will be subject to cuts in funding if companies like GCI in Alaska are allowed to take tens of millions of dollars from the program to which they are not entitled. Chairman Pai believes that the purpose of the rural health care program is to benefit rural health care providers and their patients, not service providers." 

Some legislators want the FCC to keep them better informed on how it is spending the $200 million that Congress allocated for telehealth in the CARES Act COVID-19 aid package, suggesting their have been some issues with the process. 

A spokesperson for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says the FCC has been administering the program transparently.

Democrats Frank Pallone (N.J.) and Mike Doyle (Pa.) wrote FCC chair Ajit Pai Friday (June 12), asking particularly about the health care providers who have applied but have not yet been approved. Various legislators wrote the FCC after providers in their states or districts sought money, urging it to give them all due consideration. 

“While the FCC has posted weekly updates of funding awards, we are troubled by the lack of transparency regarding the health care providers who have applied but have not yet received an award,” they wrote. “We have heard reports that many health care providers are facing issues obtaining funds, particularly those serving tribal lands. Similarly, health care providers report they have been unable to receive funding for some important telehealth equipment that we believe should be covered under the law.” 

The legislators want the following to be done by June 19. 

1. "On FCC’s public facing website, publish a docket that includes all of the applications the Commission has received for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program; 

2. Include information regarding applications that have been approved;

3. "For applications that have been approved, include information regarding the date on which funds were actually dispersed; and

4. "For applications that have been approved, include a summary of any uses or devices that were not approved for reimbursement."

The FCC has so far given out 104.98 million for 305 health care providers in 42 states and Washington, D.C., as of this week. It has issued public notices for each batch of approvals, identifying to whom the money is going, and for what, including for a variety of devices, software, and service. 

We have received the letter and look forward to reviewing it," said an FCC spokesperson. "However, the Commission has been administering this program in a transparent manner. We have been providing weekly announcements of all of the funding applications that have been approved along with the details of those approved telehealth projects provided by the applicants. Moreover, the Commission's website contains a list of all of the approved applications sorted by state. Going forward, our focus has been and must continue to be on processing all of the applications quickly and carefully, an effort that could be undercut if we turn our attention to creating a new system for posting pending applications."

With another batch of 67 approvals, the FCC has now given out over half the $200 million in telehealth broadband funding allocated in the CARES Act COVID-19 aid bill.

Related: New Bill Expands FCC Rural Healthcare Program to Urban

The additional $20.18 million for the 67 projects brings the total to $104.98 million for 305 health care providers in 42 states and Washington, D.C. That includes over 100 mental and behavioral health care providers.

The money is going to laptop computers, smart phones, videoconferencing equipment, broadband service, software and more.

"[W]e are already seeing the program’s positive impact on the health and wellness of our communities," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "To give just one example, the program is enabling the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh to remotely monitor children who have received organ transplants and are thus immunocompromised."

The FCC has approved its ninth round of telehealth applications for telehealth equipment and broadband services to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Wireline Competition Bureau approved 53 applications totaling $16.43 million. That brings the total applications approved to date to 238 in 41 states plus D.C., for a total $84.96 million. 

Related: Bill Expands Rural Healthcare Subsidy to Include Urban Areas 

The CARES Act COVID-19 relief bill included $200 million for a pandemic-related FCC telehealth program. 

The money goes to healthcare providers for laptops, tablets, smart phones, headphones, web cams, network upgrades, software licenses, broadband hot spots, video conferencing, sign language interpretation services, and more.  

Related: Pai Provides House with COVID-19 Action Update

The program benefitted include as well as remote monitoring, diagnosis and treatment for primary care, pediatric care, dental care, mental health, and substance abuse counseling.

The FCC has approved its eighth set of telehealth applications under Congress' $200 million COVID-19-related subsidy program in the CARES Act. 

The 53 new approvals total an additional $18.22 million. To date, the FCC has approved $68.22 in funding for 185 healthcare providers in 38 states and D.C.  

Related: New Bill Expands Rural Healthcare to Urban 

The latest approvals includes remote care in Texas, laptop computers and headsets for psychological services in New York, and internet service and software for substance abuse treatment in Nevada. 

The COVID-19 crisis "is shining a light" on five "critical gaps" in broadband and national emergency policies, including issues raised in the 9/11 Commission Report and the National Broadband Plan, according to Blair Levin, who headed the FCC group that produced the NBP a decade ago. He summarized the challenges as:

• Performance gaps.
• Coverage gaps.
• Security gaps.
• Utilization gaps.
• Information gaps.

Levin, who is now a nonresident senior fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, proposes that a "new initiative should take what we’ve learned, both from the current crisis and otherwise, and use it to address" these critical gaps.

In a recent interview, Levin expanded on the points he addressed on the 10th anniversary of the release of the FCC National Broadband Plan in mid-March, which coincided with the beginning of the national COVID-19 lockdown.

Related: Levin: Coronavirus Will Expose Broadband Successes, Shortcomings

Wordsmith Levin rhetorically asked "Will We Mind the Gaps?" as he focused on using COVID-19 lessons to implement new broadband solutions in the health and communications infrastructure.

"There are urgent tasks for network operators that include ensuring peak capacity remains available, expanding coverage where possible and keeping customers on-line, by, for example, voluntarily suspending disconnections for late or non-payment," Levin said.

He cited the immense changes since 2010, notably the average broadband download speed of 4.1 Mbps a decade ago - totally inadequate for today's needs - which has now increased to nearly 140 Mbps, used by "tens of millions" of customers. Levin also mentioned FCC policies that have reallocated underused wireless frequencies for National Public Safety networks, which have been valuable in the current situation. Levin (with characteristic humility) contended those developments, stemming from the NBP, are bellwethers of what must be done in the next of phase of policy making.

The major challenges will come "after the crisis," when public and private authorities must collaboratively and "rationally" analyze the results of the stresses of the COVID-19 crisis and "take whatever action they require." He told me that, as with the NBP, policy development will involve Congress, the White House, local governments and "particularly ... private enterprises," with a nod to the need that companies understand and align the incentives in a structured plan.

Related:  Let’s Get America’s Internet Nonusers Online Now

Finding Footing Across the Gaps

Levin's analysis and recommendation lay out paths across each of the gaps he has identified that are being spotlighted through the COVID-19 crisis.

Performance gaps. "We’ll need a deep data dive to determine whether bottlenecks occurred, and if so, where and why? Actual usage data should also inform a fresh look at how we allocate spectrum between licensed, unlicensed and shared regimes." He cites the "the voluntary lending of unutilized spectrum," and asks if such policies should be adopted for other situations?

Coverage gaps. "The current crisis underscores [that] problems remain both in terms of access—sparsely-populated areas with no high-speed providers—and adoption—households that, for different reasons, do not subscribe to broadband even when it is available." Levin believes that his proposed initiative should collect accurate data from the COVID crisis to update, recapitalize, and improve universal service programs, which would support the goal of offering broadband services to unserved and underserved communities.

Security gaps. "As we move more office work, education, and socializing to the home on a permanent basis, we need to reevaluate network security." Although Levin acknowledges that individual companies should determine their own security requirements, some services - especially telehealth and public education - may require national standards. He also contends that small businesses would benefit from detailed best practices, using experiences learned during the COVID-19 crisis.

Utilization gaps. There's an unspoken digital divide between the possibility and reality of "how our communications networks could be used to improve outcomes in education, health care and other public services, and what we are actually doing," Levin contends. He expects that the COVID crisis "is likely to unleash ... innovation, particularly with telehealth, telecommuting, and online education," adding that, "Evaluating what worked and what didn’t can help close the divide between our current reality and the potential benefits broadband can bring."

Information gaps. "We need to learn how, in any future crisis, our society can reduce the pollution of misinformation," Levin concludes, then adds a political zing: "We need to understand why the federal government, at least initially, did such a poor job of providing needed, trusted, and relevant information about the pandemic itself." He suggests that there should have been a website available in February or March where a person "could put in one’s zip code and immediately learn the status of the infections in the surrounding area, as well as where to be tested and treated."

Although Levin declined to reveal his own plans for being part of any follow-up initiative to analyze the COVID telecom after-math, he emphasized that, "We’ll need similar evaluations of hospital systems and other strategic national assets."

"It’s already clear that we must do even more to bring affordable, abundant bandwidth to all," he concluded, refraining his decade-old plea. "We must assess anew, based on new facts and new realities, how we safeguard life-saving communications technologies, improve key applications in government, health care, education, and other industries."

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill to dramatically increase telehealth funding dispensed by the FCC and expand it to meet the demands of COVID-19.  

Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Angus King (I-Me.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Friday (May 22) introduced the ‘Health Care Broadband Expansion During COVID-19 Act.’ 

Related: FCC Hands Out More Telehealth Funding 

The bill expands the FCC's Rural Health Care Program to include urban health care providers as well and invests and additional $2 billion over the next nine months. 

A similar bill has been introduced in the House. 

The CARES Act included $200 million for a COVID-19 targeted program for urban and rural health care. So far the FCC has approved over $50 million in funds in only a few weeks from that $200 million pot.  

Related: Pai Provides House with COVID-19 Action Update

Johnathan Spalter, president of USTelecom, says that expanding the program to urban healthcare is the right way to go. " Investing in broadband powered telehealth can transform and expand access to vital health care services. Like the companion legislation introduced by Reps. Eshoo and Young in the House, this plan recognizes that all of our country’s hospital systems and health care providers – no matters their zip code – should have cutting edge broadband and digital technology to diagnose and treat patients," he said.

There is broadband money in the HEROES Act COVID-19 aid bill passed by the House, but it looks like there will need to be standalone bills to boost funding for telehealth or remote learning since Republicans in the Senate have signaled they have no intention of passing that bill.  

“Broadband has never been more important than during this pandemic, but particularly for healthcare providers, who rely on high-speed connectivity to deliver the best possible care to patients," said Lisa Youngers, president of the Fiber Broadband Association. "The Fiber Broadband Association and its members strongly support the Health Care Broadband Expansion During COVID-19 Act and appreciate this bipartisan effort to keep healthcare facilities and patients connected in order to save lives. We remain committed to bridging the digital divide and connecting all Americans, both rural and urban, with high-speed broadband.”

The FCC has approved its seventh set of telehealth applications bringing the total to more than $50 million of the $200 million Congress allocated for the program. 

Related: FCC Waives Pre-Certification for Some Telehealth Tech

The FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau said it had approved an additional 43 applications totaling $16.87 million for the COVID-19-targeted program. The money goes to healthcare providers for telehealth services and equipment--network upgrades, laptops. 

Related: Pai Provides House with COVID-19 Action Update 

Currently, the FCC has authorized funds for 132 providers in 33 states. 

FCC chair Ajit Pai had signaled earlier in the week that the latest tranche of applications for money authorized by the CARES Act was about to be approved.  

So far, only one healthcare provider has filed to collect its money, suggesting they were fronting the cost first given the importance of speed in combating the virus, then applying to the FCC afterwards for reimbursement. 

To the occasional sounds of a crying baby in the background, FCC chair Ajit Pai presided over a relatively brief FCC public meeting, the four agenda items having already been approved prior to the meeting.

The meeting would have been shorter, but Pai took the opportunity to describe all 33 of the FCC's newest telehealth application approvals and their funding allocations--to the dollar--which he said to date total 82 applications in 30 states.

Related: FCC Hands Out More Telehealth Funding

The FCC was given $200 million in the CARES Act COVID-19 legislation to give to healthcare facilities providing remote care during the pandemic.

The chairman said the funding would deliver better healthcare and thanked all five commissioners for supporting the telehealth effort and the staffers for setting up the program so quickly. "Your work is making a real difference."

The FCC is waiving some prior equipment certifications so that medical tech from new suppliers can be sped to action in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. 

GE Healthcare requested the waiver so it could get supplies from new suppliers for use in healthcare facilities. That technology includes wearable patient monitors, diagnostic testing systems, and portable X-rays. 

Related: FCC Hands Out More Telehealth Funding 

The waiver was issued by the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology.  

But without FCC pre-certification, GE Healthcare will have to test the devices before deploying them and must get the FCC certification within 18 months or it would have to get the devices back from the healthcare facilities after the waiver expires. 

“The FCC is committed to doing everything in its power to help healthcare facilities treat patients during the coronavirus pandemic,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a statement. “This waiver will enable GE Healthcare to get new medical equipment into the field that will benefit healthcare professionals during this difficult time.” 

Telehealth is one of the FCC's key priorities in COVID-19 mitigation, including handing out $200 million in a telehealth program funded by Congress.

The FCC has approved its fifth round of telehealth funding per a $200 million congressional allocation for a COVID-19-related program.

Related: FCC Grants TerreStar Medical Telementry Service

The additional $11.19 million for 26 programs brings the total to $24.9 million to date for 56 telehealth providers in 23 states.

The money is going to both rural and urban areas.

Among the latest funding awards were for mental health and dental services in California, connected devices in Vermont, and pediatric patient monitoring in New York.

The FCC is approving the applications on a rolling basis, rather than waiting until they are all in to prioritize them.

The FCC began accepting applications April 13.

The FCC has approved its fifth round of telehealth funding per a $200 million congressional allocation for a COVID-19-related program.

Related: FCC Grants TerreStar Medical Telementry Service 

The additional $11.19 million for 26 programs brings the total to $24.9 million to date for 56 telehealth providers in 23 states.

The money is going to both rural and urban areas. 

Among the latest funding awards were for mental health and dental services in California, connected devices in Vermont, and pediatric patient monitoring in New York. 

The FCC is approving the applications on a rolling basis, rather than waiting until they are all in to prioritize them. 

The FCC began accepting applications April 13.

One groups of doctors said it should not have been left out when it came to handing out telehealth dollars allocated by Congress for the pandemic. 

The American Dental Association has asked the commission to extend the $200 million COVID-19 Telehealth program to dentists, regardless of size or for-profit status. 

Currently, the program is limited to health care providers as defined in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which does not specifically include dentists* 

ADA pointed out that the CARES Act COVID-19 aid bill that created the telehealth fund said the FCC could us the Telecommunications Act definition, but did not have to. 

It should, said the group, saying that "teledentistry" is an important service for patients during the pandemic. It also pointed out ADA had issues with guidance to its members that whenever possible they should use virtual screening, and “make every effort to interview the patient by telephone, text monitoring system, or video conference before the visit." 

Given that most dentists offices have been closed for all but emergency procedures--though some states are loosening that restriction with the sunset of national stay-at-home guidelines May 1--"dentists who are facing significant economic burdens due to the pandemic need access to FCC funds in order to afford teledentistry costs such as software to electronically message and screen patients, upgrades to the office computer system, upgrades to the office internet, extra-oral X-ray imaging equipment, digital sensors and Xray units, and digital cameras and intra-oral cameras."

ADA pointed out that the CARES Act COVID-19 aid bill that created the telehealth fund said the FCC could us the Telecommunications Act definition, but did not have to. 

Even after restrictions are lifted, social distancing will not be until there is a vaccine or treatment, so that teledentistry, or at least fewer in-person visits, will likely be the new normal. 

ADA said the request was "urgent."  

* As defined in the Act, healthcare providers are "1) Post-secondary educational institutions offering health care instruction, teaching hospitals, and medical schools; (2) community health centers or health centers providing health care to migrants; (3) local health departments or agencies; (4) community mental health centers; (5) not-for-profit hospitals; (6) rural health clinics; (7) skilled nursing facilities; or (8) consortia of health care providers consisting of one or more entities falling into the first seven categories."

The FCC has granted MIT's request for a waiver allowing the widespread use of a new remote patient monitoring system. 

The WiTrack allows caregivers to monitor patients and seniors without physical contact by wirelessly monitoring gait, breathing, heart rate and sleep, as well as to detect falls. 

Related: FCC Approves More Telehealth Funding

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a premium on social distancing, including, when possible, in healthcare settings. 

MIT had sought a wavier of FCC rules on how much bandwidth its WiTrack wireless transmissions could use and how it would demonstrate compliance. The FCC concluded that granting the waiver would not pose any greater risk of interference to other communications services than devices it has already allowed under existing rules. 

“Now, more than ever, we need to support and enable innovation in health care,” said FCC chair Ajit Pai of the waiver. “That includes innovative wireless devices like WiTrack... Devices like these can be the difference between life or death, especially now when remote monitoring is critical for patients, seniors and their caregivers as we all practice social distancing."

Congress has made it clear remote healthcare is one of the FCC's "job ones" during the pandemic, including by giving it $200 million to fund telehealth inititatives. 

Related: FCC Gets $200 Million for Telehealth

The devices will operate under part 15 rules for ultra-wideband devices, which allows a class of low-power devices to operate without an individual FCC license. 

The FCC has approved its fourth set of telehealth fund applications, this time 13 more applications for $4.2 million. 

The CARES Act provided $200 million for an FCC telehealth program to fund connectivity for healthcare providers so they could do remote monitoring of COVID-19 patients and other pandemic-related telehealth needs--like remote diagnoses and medical advice to a shelter-at-home population. 

Related: FCC Gets $200 Million for Telehealth

The FCC has so far approved $13.7 million to 16 states in a little over two weeks. 

The new grants range from $26,180 for mental health services for older people in New York to $93,380 for remote monitoring and care at the Loudoun Community Health Center T/A HealthWorks for Northern Virginia in Leesburg, Va., to $1 million--the most the FCC has signaled it will give out to a single applicant--to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for telehealth in 50 communities in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. 

Related: FCC Hands Out Telehealth Funds 

The FCC is approving the applications on a rolling basis, rather than waiting until they are all in to prioritize them. 

The FCC began accepting applications April 13.

The FCC has approved a third set of applications for the $200 million COVID-19 Telehealth program. 

Related: FCC Hands Out Telehealth Funds 

The FCC said the $2.56 million will be going to some of the hardest hit areas, as was the case with the first two batches of applications. 

FCC Approves More Telehealth Subsidies 

That brings the total number of approved applications to 17 health care providers in 10 states and totaling $9.5 million. It is approving them on a rolling basis.  

There is no deadline for spending the money, which the FCC gets "until expended." It is to go to "prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally, including to support efforts of health care providers to address coronavirus by providing telecommunications services, information services, and devices necessary to enable the provision of telehealth services during an emergency period."

The new projects funded include remote patient visits and monitoring, including for low-income residents and people with chronic health conditions. 

Related: FCC Gets $200 Million for Telehealth

Congress appropriated $200 million as part of the CARES Act coronavirus support legislation. The FCC approved a framework for vetting the applications April 1. 

The FCC began processing applications April 13. 

The FCC does not expect to give out more than $1 million per grant. Eligible providers include nonprofit hospitals, medical schools, health departments, healthcare services for migrants, and others.  

FCC chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday (April 23) that the FCC has "stood up" the program in "very short order and in a very productive fashion." 

The FCC has approved another $3.71 million in telehealth funding from the $200 million program authorized by Congress in the CARES Act COVID-19 relief legislation. 

The FCC has approved five more applications from health providers in states hard hit by the virus, including New York, Michigan, Florida and California. It is the second tranche of money the FCC has handed out, now totalling 11 applications approved and $6.94 million. 

Related: FCC Approves Framework for Telehealth Initiative 

“Telehealth is proving to be an invaluable resource to treat patients during the coronavirus pandemic,” said FCC chair Pai in announcing the latest funding. 

The FCC only began accepting applications for the money April 13. 

Among the recipients are NYU Langone Health, for telehealth services in operating rooms and conference rooms converted into ICUs and the University of Michigan Hospital, in Ann Arbor, for remote monitoring of high-risk COVID-19 patients and expanded video visits for in-home patients. 

Yes, the FCC has already voted to approve the framework for handing out $200 million in telehealth funding to cope with the coronavirus and has even handed out two tranches of that money already, the second announced Tuesday (April 21). 

Related: FCC Hands Out First COVID-19 Telehealth Funds 

The green light it has now given is to applications for entities with outstanding debts to the commission. Usually, such applications can be withheld per the FCC's "red light" rule until the debt has been repaid or otherwise resolved. 

But the FCC's Office of Managing Director and Wireline Competition Bureau agree that the pandemic constitutes the sort of "extremely unusual circumstances" that is good cause for using the FCC's discretion. 

Related: FCC Approves Telehealth Framework 

They said they did not expect there to be a flood of delinquent applicants for the money but wanted to make sure that worthy applicants aren't penalized for that debt during a health crisis. The waiver only applies to the telehealth program. 

The FCC said Thursday it has already approved six applications totaling $3.23 million in telehealth funding. 

Related: FCC Opening Telehealth Application Process Monday 

The CARES Act COVID-19 aid package included $200 million for an FCC telehealth program money for healthcare providers. 

The FCC said Thursday (April 16) that the funds would be used in some of the hardest hit areas, including New York, for telehealth services. 

The FCC pointed out that in less than three weeks the commission adopted rules for the program, opened the application window (April 13), and approved the first requests. 

The initial grantees, according to the FCC: 

1. "Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, was awarded $727,747 to implement telehealth video visits, virtual check-ins, remote patient monitoring, and e-visits to patient’s hospital rooms, enabling it to continue to provide high quality patient care, keep patients safe in their homes, and reduce the use of personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
2. "Hudson River HealthCare, Inc., in Peekskill, New York, was awarded $753,367 for telehealth services to expand its frontline COVID-19 testing and treatment programs serving a large volume of low-income, uninsured, and/or underinsured patients throughout southeastern New York State, encompassing the Hudson Valley, New York City, and Long Island. 
3. "Mount Sinai Health System, in New York City, New York, was awarded $312,500 to provide telehealth devices and services to geriatric and palliative patients who are at high risk for COVID-19 throughout New York City’s five boroughs. 
4. "Neighborhood Health Care, Inc., in Cleveland, Ohio, was awarded $244,282 to provide telemedicine, connected devices, and remote patient monitoring to patients and families impacted by COVID-19 in the City of Cleveland’s West Side neighborhoods, targeting low-income patients with chronic conditions. 
5. "Ochsner Clinic Foundation, in New Orleans, Louisiana, was awarded $1,000,000 for telehealth services and devices to serve high-risk patients and vulnerable populations in Louisiana and Mississippi, to treat COVID-19 patients, and to slow the spread of the virus to others.  
6. "UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was awarded $192,500 to provide telehealth services to children who have received organ transplants and are thus immune compromised and at high risk for COVID-19." 

At least for Verizon, BlueJeans are the new stay-at-home business attire.

With pandemic-driven video conferencing definitely a growth business, Verizon said it has signed a definitive agreement to buy the BlueJeans Network, a video conference and event platform it said the company will integrate into its 5G plans for telemedicine, distance learning and Verizon field service work.

"We are excited to combine the power of BlueJeans’ video platform with Verizon Business’ connectivity networks, platforms and solutions to meet our customers’ needs,” said Verizon Business president Tami Erwin.

Related: Verizon Gives Nurses, Teachers Price Break

Verizon said it is bringing aboard BlueJean's founders and "key management."

The deal is subject to closing conditions, but is expected to close in this quarter, Verizon said.

5G Action is doing some COVID-19 stimulus of its own, launching a five-figure targeted digital ad campaign making the point that 5G technology for telemedicine is essential for fighting COVID-19 "now." 

The campaign will run for 30 days at a minimum and will target telecommunications and healthcare policymakers in and around Washington D.C. 

The spot has no narration or sound of any kind. According to a source, that is because the vast majority of digital ad viewers watch on mobile devices and prefer it that way.

The campaign combines a shout out for the Hill and FCC efforts to ramp up telemedicine with its points that freeing up more 5G spectrum will be key to remote healthcare. 

"The benefits of 5G technology are endless, but nowhere are the benefits more important and immediate than in our healthcare system," said 5G Action Now spokesperson Ian Prior of the new campaign. "We applaud chairman Pai and the FCC for its $200 million tele-health plan and encourage Congress to keep working to expand 5G and help Americans get the healthcare they need during the Covid-19 pandemic." 

The $200 million the FCC is spending came from the CARES Act COVID-19 aid bill, and the FCC also will spend another $100 million in broadband government subsidy money on a telehealth pilot program.  

Reps. Jan Schakowksy (D-Ill.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.) have introduced the Advancing Connectivity during the Coronavirus to Ensure Support for Seniors (ACCESS) Act, the House version of a Senate telehealth bill introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.). 

The bill would boost telehealth access for seniors by funding virtual visits at nursing homes so that families can connect with their loved ones during the pandemic, where physical distance prohibits in-person visits. 

The bill would specifically: 

1. "Require the Secretary of Health and Human Service to share recommendations on additional ways to improve access to telehealth services in nursing facilities and temporarily designated nursing facilities during the pandemic; and 

2. "Establish a grant program authorizing HHS to award nursing facilities grants to enable residents to participate in “virtual visits” with loved ones while the health risk of in-person visits remains high during the pandemic." 

Related: House Telehealth Bill Introduced

“At the onset of this global health crisis, we saw that our older Americans living in nursing homes were the first to bear the brunt of the coronavirus,” Schakowsky said. “We are introducing the bipartisan ACCESS Act to make sure all nursing home residents can take advantage of telehealth services and keep in close contact with their families and other loved ones. Though physical distancing is critical, it does not have to result in damaging social isolation.” 

The FCC isn't letting any grass grow under the $200 million telehealth program that Congress funded via the CARES Act COVID-19 aid bill. 

It said Friday (April 10) that it would start accepting application for that money starting Monday (April 13) at noon. 

The $200 million emergency plan allows eligible healthcare providers to use FCC subsidy money to buy telecommunications broadband connectivity and devices, both to help COVID-19 patients, including those in self-isolation and quarantine, and others with underlying conditions who don't want to risk a trip to the doctor. 

Related: FCC Approves Framework for Telehealth Initiatives 

Applications will be accepted via a dedicated online portal, which will not be available until Monday. 

For help with that application, the FCC will post a video "explainer" on Monday here. 

“The FCC is moving quickly to distribute this funding to help health care providers and patients across the country during the coronavirus pandemic,” said chairman Pai. “Given the importance of social distancing, telehealth is more important than ever, so we are pleased to do our part to help healthcare providers purchase telecommunications, broadband connectivity, and devices necessary for providing connected care.” 

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and the American Telemedicine Association (AMA) have joined to launch TechHealthDirectory.com, a directory of digital health technologies. 

The site provides a database of telehealth tech that doctors and patients can search for access to medical devices, remote monitoring services, mental health services, and more. 

Related: White House Talks Coronavirus with Tech Giants 

CTA and ATA called the site: "[our] response to an urgent federal government request amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic." 

Related: ITI Launches Guide to COVID-19 Response Resources 

That request came from the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios, who last month asked tech companies to "create a resource identifying digital health products, tools, and services to assist the health care industry..." 

Related: White House-Backed Ed Tech Site Launches 

“The Trump Administration recognizes the power of telemedicine and digital health solutions in keeping Americans healthy and safe during this unprecedented time, making it a priority to expand access for patients and doctors alike," said Kratsios of the new portal. "We thank our Nation’s technology leaders for continued action as part of this truly whole-of-America response to the pandemic.” 

Related: OSTP Calls for AI Mining of COVID-19 Database 

“Our industry improves lives and uses innovation to help during times of crisis – and we are now rising to the challenge,” said CTA President Gary Shapiro. “This website will help the health care industry find telehealth solutions and address medical conditions. Our industry is proud to volunteer our time and expertise to offer help during a critical time of need. While much is still uncertain about the outbreak of COVID-19, there have never been more innovative tech solutions available to us all.” 

Elsewhere, Congress earmarked $300 million for FCC telehealth programs in the CARES Act COVID-19 aid package and the Department of Health and Human Services as expanded Medicare coverage for telehealth and is waiving potential HIPAA penalties for "good faith use of telehealth during the emergency." 

The FCC voted Wednesday (April 1) to start spending $200 million on telehealth per the direction of Congress in the CARES Act COVID-19 aid bill, but for at least one of the commissioners it was too quick for the second part of the proposal, a $100 million telehealth pilot project that has been cooking for some time and was also approved as part of the two-item, telehealth, package. 

While it was a bipartisan vote, Republican commissioner Michael O'Rielly dissented strongly from the majority on the pilot project item, using terms like fiscally reckless, obfuscate, and exhibiting a lack of rigor "beneath the Commission's standards." 

O'Rielly had asked that the two program frameworks--the COVID-19 Telehealth Program and Connected Care Program--be separated into two items so he could vote quickly on the first while taking more time to study the second, but said in his lengthy statement that his request did not carry the day for "specious reasons" and that it was being spun as targeting the awful pandemic when the money could not be distributed anytime soon based on the item timelines. 

FCC officials did tell reporters on background this week that the pilot Connected Care Program would be targeted at opioid abuse, mental health and chronic diseases like diabetes, rather than COVID-19. 

But O'Rielly was not done. He said that item was on shaky legal footing and was the equivalent to a government-run beauty contest without any objective criteria. 

He slammed its "neither here nor there" funding source and said it would "blatantly violate the federal anti-kickback statute.  

He said his vote was hurried, with no chance to offer edits or even digest the item, calling it "not a prudent or effective policymaking process."

The FCC has approved plans to spend $300 million on telehealth, both to meet the current COVID-19 crisis and for a longer-term project. The vote came less than 48 hours after the proposal was circulated, yet another new normal as the government attempts to match the speed of the growing pandemic. 

The vote was unanimous on the COVID-19 crisis part but not on the pilot project.

A spokesperson for FCC chairman Ajit Pai confirmed that the FCC commissioners had voted to approve the chairman's framework for spending the $200 million in telehealth funding in the CARES Act COVID-19 aid package, which passed late last week, as well as spending $100 million for a telehealth pilot project using Universal Service Fund subsidies. 

Related: Berry Urges Vote of Telehealth Initiative 

The $200 million emergency plan would allow eligible healthcare providers to buy telecommunications broadband connectivity and devices, both to help COVID-19 patients, including those in self-isolation and quarantine, and others with underlying conditions who don't want to risk a trip to the doctor. 

There is no deadline for spending the money, which the FCC gets "until expended." It is to go to "prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally, including to support efforts of health care providers to address coronavirus by providing telecommunications services, information services, and devices necessary to enable the provision of telehealth services during an emergency period."  

The money will be prioritized to areas hardest hit by COVID-19, including populations most in need of social distancing. 

According to senior FCC officials, the FCC does not expect to give out more than $1 million per grant. Eligible providers include nonprofit hospitals, medical schools, health departments, healthcare services for migrants, and others. 

Some for-profit hospitals may not be eligible due to the FCC's focus of what officials said was limited dollars to the most in need.  

The other $100 million is going to a three-year pilot project that would:  

1. "Provide universal service support to help defray health care providers’ qualifying costs of providing connected care services.  

2. "Target funding to eligible health care providers, with a primary focus on pilot projects that would primarily benefit low-income or veteran patients.  

3. "Make available up to $100 million, which would be separate from the budgets of the existing Universal Service Fund programs and the COVID-19 Telehealth Program.    

4. "Provide funding for selected pilot projects to cover 85% of the eligible costs of broadband connectivity, network equipment, and information services necessary to provide connected care services to the intended patient population." 

That 85% coverage is a difference with the $200 million in the emergency program, which can be used to cover 100% of costs.  

Other big differences: 1) The pilot project will not cover device costs, which the FCC said it can't because the funding comes from USF rather than the COVID-19 relief bill. 2) Time being of the essence in a sheltered-at-home world, the emergency grants will be handed out on a rolling basis--the FCC won't wait until it gets all the applications in before starting to hand out money to qualified applicants-while in the pilot program, the FCC will wait until they are all in before deciding. 3) The emergency program is focused on COVID-19, while the pilot will target opioid abuse treatment and mental health and chronic diseases like diabetes. 4) In the emergency program, there will be no requirement for competitive bidding while there will be in the pilot program.  

The pilot proposal will also look at how the Connected Care program could be made a permanent part of the FCC's Universal Service Fund broadband/advanced telecom subsidy program. 

Commissioner O'Rielly said the emergency aid part was short on details an long on discretion, he could support it. But he had little good to say about the pilot."[T]he second part of the item—based on the very limited time I have had to review it—seems to have been half-cooked and rushed out the door to take advantage of the current crisis," he said.

"[W]hile I applaud Chairman Pai and the FCC for moving forward with the COVID-19 program expeditiously, I cannot endorse the decision to rush the Connected Care Pilot out the door in its current state. Therefore, I have voted to approve in part and dissent in part," O'Rielly said.

Matthew Berry, chief of staff to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, said that the chairman's framework for an emergency telehealth initiative has been voted for by three of the five commissioners, which essentially means it has been approved.

But it can't be official until the other two vote, or weeks have passed for them to vote.

Related: Pai Circulates Framework for Telehealth Program

Congress allocated $200 million for that telehealth program in the CARES Act COVID-19 aid bill.

In a tweet Tuesday afternoon (March 31), Berry urged the other two votes to come in ASAP.

[embed]https://twitter.com/AjitPaiFCC/status/1245054104789045248[/embed]

The proposal would allow eligible health care providers to buy telecommunications broadband connectivity and devices, both to help COVID-19 patients, including those in self-isolation and quarantine, and others with underlying conditions who don't want to risk a trip to the doctor. 

AT&T has paired up with "virtual care" company VitalTech to offer free access to remote healthcare.

The company says it is offering 60 days of free telehealth services via the VitalCare platform to business customers, including hospitals and doctors' offices.

AT&T is billing it as a "reliable, end-to-end solution for diagnosing medical conditions in virtual visits that keep folks sheltering in place when possible, reducing the potential spread of the coronavirus.

The government has paved the way for some of that remote patient monitoring and diagnoses by removing Medicare restraints on telehealth during the pandemic.

Doctors and hospitals can diagnose and monitor patients via video, call or messaging on the HIPAA-compliant platform.

“Telehealth is going to play an integral role in containing the spread of COVID-19,” said Mo Katibeh, EVP and chief marketing officer at AT&T Business. “AT&T is committed to keeping people connected during this global pandemic – especially the workers on the frontline who are caring for patients.”

The FCC has provided some regulatory relief for participants in its Rural Healthcare Program. 

Remote healthcare in the age of coronavirus is a big issue in Washington as social distancing and shelter-at-home become the new norm. 

Specifically, the FCC has extended the RHC application window to June 30, 2020, loosened competitive bidding requirements for healthcare providers with expiring contracts and extended deadlines for filing invoices, appeals and other deadlines. 

Related: FCC Gets $200 Million for Telehealth

“The disruption to health care providers throughout the country as a result of this pandemic is indisputable and the FCC, alongside other federal agencies, is working to address these challenges head on,” said FCC chairman Ajit Pai of the changes. “Telemedicine continues to play a significant role in combating the ongoing pandemic, especially in rural areas. Today’s changes will allow health care providers to focus their attention on their immediate task at hand—addressing the influx of patients associated with the COVID-19 outbreak and continuing critical care for existing patients, thereby helping to control the spread of this serious pandemic. With our actions today, our hospitals and health care providers can devote more of their attention on continuing to meet the needs of their communities.” 

Verizon said it stands ready to help its customers ramp up telecommuting and online learning, as well as telehealth and first-responder communications, as the country faces the coronavirus outbreak. It has also pledged to ramp up capital spending, in part to provide some stimulus to a hurting economy. 

Verizon said it has not yet seen a measurable increase in data usage despite the increase in teleworking and remote schooling. It says its networks are built to meet future demand and have the capacity to handle increases if they come. 

Verizon also said it is upping its capital expenditures for 2020 from $17 billion-$18 billion to $17.5 billion-$18.5 billion to accelerate 5G, spending it said will also "help support the economy during this period of disruption." 

The company said it is monitoring usage and will prioritize demand to assist hospitals, schools and government agencies. 

“Verizon operates its networks every day as though it’s a snow day—events when millions of Americans work from home while family members go online to watch videos, play games and talk and text to their friends and families,” said Verizon CTO Kyle Malady. "While this is an unprecedented situation, we know things are changing, and we are ready to adjust network resources as we better understand any shifts in demand. We have the best engineers in the world monitoring the situation closely.” 

A spokesperson for FCC chairman Ajit Pai, in response to calls from ranking Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel for aggressive action from the FCC including potentially eliminate data caps, told Multichannel News that the commission "has already been coordinating closely with network operators and has been encouraged by the feedback we have received both regarding the ability of their networks to handle changes in usage patterns caused by the coronavirus outbreak and their plans to maintain their own operations during the outbreak." 

Verizon's announcement provided some supporting material for the FCC's encouraging words.

Congress is employing broadband in the fight against the coronavirus. 

The COVD-19 supplemental funding package that was signed by President Trump Friday (March 6) included a provision waiving telehealth restrictions for Medicare beneficiaries so they can still get diagnostic care and treatment while limiting possible exposure and spread of the virus. 

That was good news for telehealth association ATA.  

"We are heartened by the swift actions being taken by Congress to put the right tools in the hands of healthcare professionals to effectively address the COVID-19 outbreak," said ATA CEO Ann Mond Johnson. "Many ATA members are providing solutions that are helping to keep people safe and out of hospitals and doctors' offices, map the virus and triage individuals needing medical care. Telehealth is well-suited to provide one-to-many care that is safe, effective and efficient. We are seeing the significant value telehealth offers, not only in public health emergencies, but also in day-to-day care delivery." 

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) this week called on the FCC to look into how it can help boost access to telehealth during the virus outbreak. 

Citing FCC temporary rules adopted during past emergencies, like Hurricane Katrina, she asked FCC chair Ajit Pai to explore whether the FCC can put existing authority and programs to aid in coronavirus response. She pointed out that during Katrina, the FCC adopted temporary rules to help support telemedicine. 

The FCC has received the letter and was still reviewing it at press time, according to a spokesperson.