Congressional Support Builds for Broadband Funding to Aid Telehealth

A group of Senators is throwing their support behind efforts to invest $2 billion into broadband expansion in rural areas to expand telehealth adoption where it’s most needed.

The group this week introduced the Health Care Broadband Expansion During COVID-19 Act, which would set aside the money to support the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Health Care (RHC) Program.

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“The Rural Health Care Program is an integral piece of providing quality healthcare to Alaskans in small, remote communities - many of which are not connected to a road system,” Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said in a joint press release. “Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the demand for telehealth. Unfortunately, as a result, the Rural Health Care Program has already outpaced the funding it was allocated prior to the outbreak and telehealth providers are facing significant connectivity challenges in their effort to provide care.” 

“As we navigate the challenges of COVID-19, and ease the restrictions for telehealth use, the demand for this program will only continue to increase,” she added. “This legislation is imperative to enable healthcare providers to increase their broadband capacity and expand their ability to provide healthcare to those in need.”

Murkowski is co-sponsoring the bill with Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), John Boozman (R-AR), Angus King (I-ME), Gary Peters (D-MI), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Ed Markey (D-MA). A companion bill, introduced by US Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Don Young (R-AK), was filed in the House in April.

Earlier this month, Schatz, Murkowski, King and Boozman sent a letter to Congressional leaders asking that $2 million be included in the next relief bill – called the HEROES Act (HR 6800) – for broadband expansion. The money is reportedly included in the bill, but the bill faces a difficult road to passage.

“Congress must do more for our health care providers so that they can meet telehealth needs during the COVID-19 pandemic,” they wrote in their letter. “This additional support would expand the reach of the RHC Program to enable health care providers at non-rural and mobile health care facilities to engage in telehealth, eliminate administrative red tape that slows down the ability of front-line providers to obtain broadband connectivity, and provide more resources to current health care providers in the RHC Program so they can increase their broadband capacity to effectively treat their patients.”

Comprised of the Telecommunications Program, which makes up for the difference between urban and rural connectivity costs, and the Health Care Connect Fund, which covers as much as 65 percent of those connectivity costs, the RHC Program was established in 1997 and given a $400 million cap. In 2018, with demand for funding outpacing resources, the FCC added money to the fund.

With their bill, Murkowski, Schatz and their colleagues are proposing to:

• Provide $2 billion in additional support for the Rural Health Care (RHC) Program for the coronavirus response;
• Increase the subsidy rate for RHC Health Care Connect Fund participants during the pandemic, which they can put toward additional telehealth resources;
• Enable mobile and non-rural healthcare facilities to engage in telehealth during the pandemic under the RHC Program;
• Eliminate red tape and streamline the program’s distribution of funding so that healthcare providers can quickly implement telehealth applications and treat patients faster; and
• Delay for one year the implementation of FCC rules that would severely impact support for some of the program’s most rural healthcare providers.

The bill has the support of the United States Telecom Association, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, America's Communications Association, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, the National League of Cities and the Fiber Broadband Association.