Avera, UPMC Among Health Systems Getting USDA Telemedicine Grants

Federal authorities have announced millions of dollars in new grants for telehealth programs across the country.

Some $72 million in federal funding is going to 116 projects through the US Department of Agriculture’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grant program. The projects are located in 40 states, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and will affect more than 12 million residents.

“Increasing access to telemedicine and distance learning is critical to building healthier and more resilient rural communities,” USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a press release. “Paired with our monumental effort to expand high-speed broadband access in rural America, these investments will help rural health care centers and education institutions reach more rural residents with essential services and opportunities.”

The program is designed to help healthcare providers and educational institutions, usually in rural parts of the country, purchase hardware and software to launch telehealth and distance learning programs.

The list of grants specific to connected health projects includes:

• $865,408 to Alaska’s Southcentral Foundation to expand and enhance telehealth and telepharmacy programs in 13 rural communities;
• $744,452 to Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center in Arizona to develop a telemedicine network for its medical centers covering several rural communities, and to enhance EMS services;
• $985,455 to the Colorado Department of Corrections to establish a telehealth program for 17 corrections facilities in 12 counties;
• $576,035 to Augusta University in Georgia to create a teledermatology platform for primary care providers in rural clinics in 15 counties;
• $574,786 to the Idaho Primary Care Association to create a telehealth network linking 30 health center sites and three hospitals in a hub-and-spoke telemedicine program across 17 counties in Idaho and one in neighboring Oregon;
• $781,127 to Barton County, Kansas, to create a telehealth platform in local jails, health departments and other sites to address access needs of underserved populations and people dealing with substance abuse issues;
• $1 million to the Mountain Comprehensive Care Center in Kentucky to expand telehealth services to 36 sites in 20 counties across the eastern, central and western parts of the state;
• $430,124 to Garrett Regional Medical Center in Oakland, Maryland, to create a virtual cancer care and chronic disease management program for residents in three rural counties in Maryland and West Virginia;
• $999,573 to MaineHealth to establish an eConsult program serving rural hospitals and other sites across 10 counties in Maine and one in New Hampshire;
• $1 million to the Delta Health Center to establish a telehealth network with 10 sites across the Mississippi Delta region;
• $985,399 to South Dakota-based Avera Health to expand an emergency telemedicine program to rural facilities across a seven-state, 66-county area;
• $451,001 to the Cumberland County Hospital System to establish the Cape Fear Valley Telemedicine Network, offering specialty services to residents in six counties in southeastern North Carolina;
• $448,800 to the UPMC health system to strengthen telehealth services at its Hamot-Erie and Kane hubs, serving more than 100,000 residents in four Pennsylvania counties;
• $869,565 to the Migrant Health Center in western Puerto Rico to provide substance abuse disorder treatment, mental health services and primary care services through a telehealth network at 11 sites;
• $995,129 to the South Carolina Department of Corrections to expand substance abuse and mental health treatment services via telehealth to prison inmates in 16 counties;
• $402,793 to American Health Companies to establish telehealth services at five skilled nursing facilities in rural Tennessee;
• $585,388 to the LCDH Foundation to create a telehealth platform in 20 sites to reach underserved and remote residents of five Texas counties;
• $887,525 to the Retina and Vitreous Center in Virginia to launch a telehealth platform for patients with eye issues including diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration and eye tumors;
• $313,361 to the Mountain States Health Alliance to create a school-based telehealth program serving students in eight rural counties in Tennessee and Virginia; and
• $996,281 to St. Vincent Hospital of the Hospital Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis to expand a telehealth program across 10 counties in Wisconsin and two counties in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.