WASHINGTON—The U.S. Federal Communications Commission released a $400-million plan July 15 looking to expand the use of broadband Internet connection in rural areas in order to promote telemedicine among healthcare providers, including nonprofit dialysis clinics.
“In the 21st century, high-quality healthcare depends on broadband connectivity," said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski. "These are clinics at the farthest reaches of the United States, and in the center; in small town Appalachia, in the great Northwest plains, in the vast deserts of the Southwest, and in virtually every region of our country."
The FCC wants to create a “health infrastructure program” to fund up to 85 percent of eligible costs for the design, construction and deployment of dedicated broadband networks that connect public or non-profit healthcare providers in areas of the country where the existing broadband infrastructure is inadequate.
The agency specially mentions dialysis clinic as one the areas to be included in the plan, in addition to skilled nursing facilities and off-site administrative offices and data centers.
“Disease management applications that require broadband connectivity will permit on-going consultations between patients and medical, pharmaceutical, and behavioral professionals for the treatment and management of renal and kidney diseases, asthma, hypertension, obesity, and other long-term conditions,” the FCC wrote in the proposed rule.
This program would invest up to $400 million annually to allow doctors, nurses, hospitals and clinics to deliver, through communications technology, healthcare to patients, no matter where they live, according to the FCC.
The Universal Service Fund (USF) would provide the money for the new rural telehealth program. The USF was set up to subsidize telephone service in rural and poor areas and is funded with an 11 percent tax on long-distance and international phone service. The program has an annual budget of around $7 billion; however, the FCC said the budget would not increase with the new program.
The FCC said it would also partner with public and nonprofit healthcare providers to invest millions of dollars in new regional and statewide broadband networks in parts of the country where it is unavailable or insufficient.
In addition, the FCC proposed making broadband connectivity more affordable by sharing half of the monthly recurring network costs with hospitals, clinics and other healthcare providers.
“This program is a critical step in fulfilling the vision of the National Broadband Plan,” said Genachowski. “By requiring that participants secure matching funds for both infrastructure and services, we are forging a public-private partnership to act in a smart and fiscally responsible way. And by expanding the market for health-related technologies and applications, we will promote innovation and private investment.”
Specifically, the proposed FCC program would provide support for the construction of state or regional broadband healthcare networks that can, for example, connect rural and urban healthcare providers, facilitate the transmission of real time video, pictures, and graphics, bridge the silos that presently isolate relevant patient data, make communications resources more robust and resilient, and maximize the efficiency and reliability of packet routing.
The FCC added that broadband infrastructure projects may include either new facilities or improvements to upgrade existing facilities (for example, converting a copper facility to a fiber facility capable of broadband delivery).
Nonprofit renal dialysis facilities would receive support under the proposal as eligible healthcare providers under the category of not-for-profit hospitals. “Additionally, we propose that a renal dialysis center or renal dialysis facility seeking rural healthcare support should be required to certify that, over the 12-month period preceding the date of application for support, the facility provided life-preserving ESRD treatment to at least 51 percent of its patients,” the FCC wrote in the proposal.
The 30-day comment period for the proposal started on July 15. Comments may be filed electronically through http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs2/ or the Federal eRulemaking Portal www.regulations.gov.
Click HERE to read the proposal.
