The Federal Communications Commission has approved a $400 million program to expand broadband access to rural communities so healthcare providers there have the connectivity required to use electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine and other health IT.
The FCC program comes on the heels of the Health and Human Services Department release of final rules that describe what providers must do to show meaningful use of EHRs to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.
The FCC will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking next month in the Federal Register to establish details of the rural broadband program and to modify the agency’s Universal Service Fund for telecommunications services, which funds it. The public will be able to comment on the proposal.
The new program will bring broadband connectivity to more than 2,000 rural hospitals and clinics, expanding the current Rural Health Care Pilot Program, started in 2007, by 20 percent to a total of 12,000 providers, said Julius Genachowski, FCC chairman. Existing broadband pilots have been running in states such as Iowa, Oregon, Montana and West Virginia.
“Currently, too many clinics and hospitals lack affordable access to even basic broadband connectivity to handle the most basic of tele-health tasks, like managing medical records, transmitting an x-ray or MRI, or consulting remotely with a doctor,” he said in a statement July 15.
Nearly 30 percent of federally funded rural healthcare clinics can’t afford secure and reliable broadband services, Genachowski said. The program is a critical piece of the National Broadband Plan, which the FCC unveiled in March.
Under the proposed rural broadband program, the FCC will partner with public and nonprofit healthcare providers to invest in new regional and statewide broadband networks in regions where it is unavailable or insufficient. The agency will share one half of the monthly recurring network costs with hospitals, clinics and other providers.
FCC will also deliver connectivity to other healthcare facilities, such as nursing homes and renal dialysis centers, along with administrative offices and data centers that perform support functions for healthcare networks.
“This program has the potential to do for rural healthcare providers and patients what the enormously successful E-Rate program has done for schools and students,” Genachowski said, referring to the FCC program that funded Internet access for schools.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Mary Mosquera
Quelle/Source: Government Health IT, 20.07.2010
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
