What You Need to Know:
– FCC approves the third set of six COVID-19 telehealth program providers, totaling $2.56M in funding.
– To date, the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program has funded 17 health care providers in 10 states for a total of $9.5 million in funding.
The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau approved an additional six funding applications for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program, totaling $2.56M in funding. The third set of providers will support some of the hardest-hit areas like California and Maryland to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program has funded 11 health care providers in 8 states for a total of $6.94 million in funding.
Here is the third list of approved healthcare providers that were awarded funding:
Anne Arundel Medical Center, Inc., in Annapolis, Maryland, was awarded $664,606 to implement video telehealth services to diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients across 11 Medically Underserved Areas throughout Central Maryland and to support remote patient visits and monitoring to protect high-risk patients who must be triaged out of the hospital, or as part of an early discharge program for non-COVID patients to preserve hospital capacity.
Christiana Care Health Services, in Newark, Delaware, was awarded $714,322 to expand its telehealth and remote patient monitoring services to low-income, vulnerable patients, primarily in New Castle County.
Garfield Health Center, in Monterey Park, California, was awarded $130,217 to provide remote care to low-income, vulnerable patients with underlying and/or chronic health conditions that are at high risk for COVID-19, while triaging COVID-19 patients in the San Gabriel Valley.
HIV/AIDS Alliance for Region 2 d/b/a Open Health Care Clinic, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was awarded $116,049 to expand its telehealth and remote patient monitoring capabilities to treat low-income, vulnerable patients.
NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in New York, New York, was awarded $772,687 to expand telehealth services that allow high-risk, elderly, and vulnerable patients to remain at home while receiving complex care and chronic disease management.
White Plains Hospital Medical Center, in White Plains, New York, was awarded $165,832 to deploy telehealth services to treat high-risk and vulnerable patients with pre-existing pulmonary conditions and to implement telehealth services to address the facility’s surging patient population while minimizing the risk of COVID-19 exposure for staff and patients without COVID-19.
COVID-19 Telehealth Program Overview
The $200 million COVID-19 Telehealth Program would immediately support healthcare providers responding to the pandemic by providing eligible healthcare providers support to purchase telecommunications services, information services, and devices necessary to enable the provision of telehealth services during this emergency period. It would provide selected applicants with full funding for these eligible telehealth services and devices. In order to receive funding, eligible healthcare providers would submit a streamlined application to the Commission for this program, and the Commission would award funds to selected applicants on a rolling basis until the funds are exhausted or until the current pandemic has ended.
