FCC Rewards 5 More Health Systems With COVID-19 Telehealth Program Funding

Five more health systems have qualified for funding from the Federal Communications Commission’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program.

As with the first group of health systems announced last week, these five are using telehealth or mHealth tools and platforms in regions of the US that have been hardest hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. And they’re developing programs that either aid in treatment of people infected with the virus under quarantine conditions or that maintain care management for vulnerable populations at heightened risk of being infected.

(For more coronavirus updates, visit our resource page, updated twice daily by Xtelligent Healthcare Media.)

The COVID-19 Telehealth Program is not a grant program. To receive disbursements, healthcare providers will be required to submit an invoicing form and supporting documentation to receive reimbursement for eligible expenses and services.

The awards, totaling $3.71 million, are as follows:

• NYU Langone Health in New York City is getting $983,772 to expand its telemedicine footprint to operating rooms and conference rooms that have been converted into ICUs, giving providers the ability to remotely monitor patients in those rooms;
• Banyan Community Health Center in Coral Gables, FL, is getting $958,270 to launch telehealth programs in 24 underserved communities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, providing connected health services to some 2,000 low-income and high-risk patients;
• Health Partners of Western Ohio, based in Lima, OH, will get $737,098 to deploy telemedicine carts to roughly 50 more locations around the state, expanding access to care for low-income patients;
• The University of Michigan Hospital at Ann Arbor, MI, will get $649,000 to launch a remote patient monitoring program, including virtual visits, to treat high-risk patients at home;
• St. John’s Well Child and Family Center in Los Angeles is getting $382,331 to expand RPM, video visits and phone-based telehealth services to roughly 21,000 people in South Los Angeles and Compton.

“Telehealth is proving to be an invaluable resource to treat patients during the coronavirus pandemic,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a press release. “From implementing remote patient monitoring to helping low-income patients receive care in their communities, I am confident that the funding we approved today will help health care providers expand their telehealth efforts in New York, Michigan, and elsewhere.”

Since the FCC began accepting applications about a week ago, the agency has doled out $6.94 million to 11 health systems in eight states. The program, created out of last month’s CARES Act, has set aside $200 million for grants.

In a separate document, the FCC announced that it is suspending its “red light” rule, which prevents healthcare providers who owe money to the FCC from participating in the COVID-19 Telehealth Program.

“The Office of Managing Director and Wireline Competition Bureau find that the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic along with the tremendous efforts by health care providers to identify and treat patients with the virus constitutes extremely unusual circumstances,” the FCC said. “As such, in order to facilitate prompt review and processing of the maximum number of applications to the COVID-19 Telehealth Program, we find that it is in the public interest and good cause exists to waive the Commission’s ‘red light’ rule with respect to such applications.”