FCC raises subsidies for rural health care networks

The Federal Communications Commission has created a test program that will subsidize statewide and regional broadband networks for the delivery of health care services, especially telemedicine, in rural areas.

The two-year program is an extension of the commission’s rural health care funding program, which is financed by the Universal Service Fee that long-distance telephone companies pay. The new program could amount to more than $60 million a year.

The commission will pay as much as 85 percent of the costs to deploy networks and connect the new networks to Internet2, a nationwide backbone linking universities and research centers.

The rural health care funding program, which subsidizes phone and Internet service for public and nonprofit health care providers in rural areas, is consistently underused. “Although the commission has allotted $400 million a year for this fund, only about 10 percent of this amount is ever used,” said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

The commission has been trying to increase use of the program. The new program could lead to changes in the existing rural subsidy program, commission officials said.

“Under the pilot program we adopt today, patients anywhere on the network will have greater access to critically needed specialists in a variety of specialties,” Martin said. “For example, through the use of telemedicine, doctors in urban hospitals can read radiology images of patients in rural trauma centers and provide real-time consultations. This ability to diagnose, treat and monitor patients from a distance will reduce the length of hospital stays, lower medical expenses and improve the quality of health care.”

He said the program could contribute to achieving President Bush’s goal of most Americans having electronic health records by 2014.

Applications will be due 30 days after the Office of Management and Budget approves the information collection requirements for the new program.