Ramona Midkiff

Source:  Bluffton Today

By:  Michael M. DeWitt, Jr.

From recreation to education, from community centers to international commerce hubs, South Carolina Representative Shedron Williams is seeking millions in state funding for the people he represents in Hampton and Jasper counties.

 Ahead of the S.C. House of Representatives debate on the state budget later this month, Rep. Williams (D-Hampton) has made several budget requests totaling more than $59.1 million. The largest of those request include a $37 million investment in facilities in the newly consolidated Hampton County School District and $7 million for the Jasper port.

“With the influx of federal funds coming to our state on top of a surplus, this year’s budget presents an opportunity to make historic investments in education and other neglected projects in our state,” Williams said.

“All I can do is ask and be at the table,” Williams stated in an email to The Hampton County Guardian, but added that “We are expecting the majority of the items.”

While Williams priorities include a countywide recreation/health and wellness center in Hampton County as well as improvements to Lake Warren State Park, here is a full breakdown of all of Williams’ requests:

Southern Carolina Alliance

$700,000 for a rail crossing at the Southern Carolina Industrial Park. This item is a must for the full development of the new agribusiness that is promising 1,500 jobs, said Williams.

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By: Kathy Rhoad, Director of Public Relations & Program Development at Palmetto Care Connections

BAMBERG, SC—Palmetto Care Connections (PCC) Chief Executive Officer Kathy Schwarting announced that Matthew Bartels, M.D., F.A.A.P., C.P.E., chief medical officer for BlueCross Blue Shield of South Carolina and Christian L. Soura, executive vice president of the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) have joined the PCC Board of Directors.

“Palmetto Care Connections is extremely fortunate to have the expertise of Dr. Matt Bartels and Christian Soura as new members of our board of directors as we work to assist health care providers in keeping health care local and connecting rural and underserved South Carolinians to quality services through broadband, technology and telehealth,” said Kathy Schwarting.

Dr. Matt Bartels has served as vice president, chief medical officer for BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina since 2017. He is responsible for oversight of the clinical content of commercial insurance programs and initiatives, and he plays a key role in driving health and outcome measurement requirements and program evolution.

Board-certified in pediatric medicine, Dr. Bartels practiced for over 20 years and has worked in health plan administration for the last 17 years. Prior to coming to S.C. in July 2017, Dr. Bartels was in a leadership role at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield in New York where he was a chief medical officer with a focus on quality program development, population health, analytics and reporting, provider partnership collaborations, and innovative health care improvement activities.

He received his bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and graduated from the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He completed his residency training at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dr. Bartels is a member of the American Medical Association and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is a Certified Physician Executive as well as a member of the American Association for Physician Leadership.

The PCC Board of Directors also welcomes Executive Vice President of the South Carolina Hospital Association Christian Soura. He previously led the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and was president of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. Earlier, he was deputy chief of staff for Governor Nikki Haley, with responsibility for the state’s executive budget and the administration’s policy initiatives.

Soura is a former secretary of administration for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and was chairman of the Pennsylvania Employee Benefits Trust Fund Board, Pennsylvania’s largest group purchaser of health insurance.

He holds graduate degrees from Penn State and the University of Illinois. Christian is the chairman of the Nurse-Family Partnership’s Board of Directors and has held leadership positions in professional associations including the National Association of Medicaid Directors, National Association of State Chief Administrators, and the American Society for Public Administration. He also served on South Carolina’s Commission on National and Community Service.

About PCC

Established in 2010, Palmetto Care Connections (PCC) is a non-profit organization that brings technology, broadband, and telehealth solutions to health care providers in rural and underserved areas in South Carolina. PCC hosts the Annual Telehealth Summit of South Carolina presenting state and national best practices and trends, as well as providing networking connections for health care, technology and broadband professionals.

The leader of the South Carolina broadband consortium, PCC assists health care providers in receiving broadband savings through the Federal Communication Commission’s Healthcare Connect Fund program. Since 2013, PCC has helped providers save more than $30 million in broadband costs.

PCC co-chairs the South Carolina Telehealth Alliance, along with the Medical University of South Carolina, serving as an advocate for rural providers and partnering with organizations to improve health care access and delivery for all South Carolinians.

The National Cooperative of Health Networks Association named Palmetto Care Connections as the 2021 Outstanding Health Network of the Year. In recognition of her devotion to improving health care in rural areas, PCC Chief Executive Officer Kathy Schwarting received South Carolina’s 2021 Community Star award presented by the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health.

Source: Index-Journal

By: Robert Preidt

THURSDAY, March 3, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Telemedicine was widely used by Americans with multiple sclerosis (MS) during the pandemic, and many were happy with the results, a new study finds.

“The findings suggest that telehealth services were well liked during the pandemic. Because many individuals with MS have physical disability that may make travel more difficult, temporary expansions of telehealth coverage should be made permanent after the pandemic in order to expand access and reduce health care disparities,” said lead author Michelle Chen. She is a core member of Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, and neurology instructor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.

MS is a chronic and progressive neurological disorder and the leading cause of non-injury-related disability among young and middle-aged adults.

People with MS require regular medical care, so health care providers were concerned about how medical facility closures and social distancing measures during the early stages of the pandemic would affect the health of their MS patients.

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Source: Index-Journal

By: Physician’s Briefing Staff

TUESDAY, March 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Alexa may soon be able to help patients contact a doctor. The service from Amazon and telemedicine provider Teladoc Health will be available around the clock on Amazon Echo devices, the Associated Press reported.

After telling Alexa they want to talk to a doctor, customers will get a call back from a Teladoc physician. In some cases, doctors will be able to prescribe medications, according to details announced Monday. Whether patients get a call back on the same day they make their request to Alexa may depend on the availability of doctors, Teladoc spokesman Chris Savarese told the AP.

Amazon will not be able to access, record, or store the content of the ensuing call, he noted. The cost will depend on the patient’s insurance. Without coverage, the fee will be $75. The service will be audio-only to start, but the companies said they expect to soon add video, the AP reported.

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State Sen. Billy Garrett led Monday’s legislative delegation meeting, hearing from WCFiber and Vision Greenwood about plans and options to expand local internet service.

Source: Index Journal

By: Damian Dominguez

Source: Becker’s Hospital Review

By: Katie Adams

The share of patients who believe telehealth provides the same or better quality of care compared with in-person visits is increasing, according to the “State of Telemedicine” report released Feb. 16 by health IT and telehealth networking platform Doximity.

In November, Doximity surveyed 2,000 U.S. adults, half of whom had a chronic illness, about their telehealth attitudes and experiences. The company conducted a similar survey in July 2020 and compared the year-over-year response differences.

The share of patients who reported that telehealth provides the same or better quality of care compared with in-person visits rose from 40 percent in 2020 to 55 percent in 2021. It rose from 28 percent to 47 percent among patients without a chronic illness and from 53 percent to 63 percent among patients with a chronic illness.

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Source:  The State

By Alex Roarty

Federal grants totaling more than $277 million are expected to lay the groundwork for broadband internet access in rural America, which will grow even more when billions of dollars in the infrastructure plan are released. Richard B. Levine TNS

WASHINGTON Federal officials on Friday announced nearly $300 million in new grant money meant to expand access to high-speed internet, part of a larger ongoing effort from the federal government to make broadband internet more widely available across the country.

The funds are earmarked for 13 states or territories, including Kentucky, Washington and Missouri, and are expected to give more than 130,000 households the ability to use faster internet service, according to a senior official with the Department of Commerce.

Expanding broadband Internet to areas without it has been a priority of President Joe Biden’s administration, which spearheaded passage of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure law last year that included tens of billions of dollars to increase access to the service.

“Today’s awards are another example of the Biden administration’s commitment to closing the digital divide and building strong partnerships with those who can help us expand internet access,” said Gina Raimondo, Commerce Department secretary, in a statement.

The money from these grants, however, comes from an appropriations bill approved by Congress in late 2020, according to Senior Commerce Department officials.

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Source: Johnson City Press

Orangeburg County Council Tuesday unanimously approved continuing to extend its broadband infrastructure throughout the county.

The council voted to spend $3,333,865 for the first phase of the broadband extension. The company doing the work will be Columbia-based Utility Service Contractors Inc.

The county also approved engaging with Missouri-based Graybar for $1,482,146 for the second phase of the broadband project.

The monies are a part of a $13.5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture ReConnect Program grant the county received that covers Cope, Felderville, portions of Santee, Neeses and North.

Phase 1 is eastern Orangeburg with a targeted completion by the end of the year, though there could be delays due to supply-chain issues.

Phase 2 is in western Orangeburg. Phase 2 should be completed by mid-year 2023.

Council also unanimously approved engaging St. Matthews-based Porth Construction for $3,496,190 to build the SC Gateway pump station and make sanitary sewer improvements

The project, which is expected to be complete by year’s end, will help connect the 1,322-acre South Carolina Gateway Industrial Park (formerly JAFZA Magna Park in Santee) to the county’s wastewater system.

In other matters, council gave unanimous first reading to provide a fee-in-lieu-of-tax incentive to a company publicly being identified under the name Project Stallion. Typically, projects are not publicly identified until deals are finalized.

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Source: FCC

By: Anne Veigle

New Rural Broadband Accountability Plan Will Increase
Audits, Verifications and Transparency

WASHINGTON, January 28, 2022—The Federal Communications Commission today
announced that it is ready to authorize more than $1.2 billion through the Rural Digital
Opportunity Fund to fund new broadband deployments in 32 states. In the largest funding
round to date, 23 broadband providers will bring broadband service to over 1 million locations.
The Commission also has created the Rural Broadband Accountability Plan, a new effort to
monitor and ensure compliance for universal service high-cost programs including the Rural
Digital Opportunity Fund.

“Today’s announcement means more connectivity is coming to consumers, while we continue
our commitment to make sure that funding goes to areas that truly need it,” said Chairwoman
Rosenworcel. “The new Rural Broadband Accountability Plan will speed up our audit and
verification processes and for the first time make public the results of verifications, audits, and
speed and latency testing. These new measures will help ensure that the providers we fund in
this program will do the job.”

The Rural Broadband Accountability Plan makes a number of changes and enhancements to
existing audit and verification procedures, including:

A fact sheet on the Rural Broadband Accountability Plan is available here:
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-creates-rural-broadband-accountability-plan
With today’s sixth funding wave, the Commission has now announced over $4 billion in
funding to winning bidders for new deployments. Meanwhile, Commission staff continue to
carefully review and process long-form applications on a rolling basis. Over the past year the
Commission has taken a number of actions to strengthen its oversight of the program,
including:

• Increasing audits and verifications of support recipients – The number of audits and
  verifications will double in 2022 as compared to 2021, and include on-site audits as
  well as audits and verifications based upon random selection.
• Increasing audits and verifications of large and higher-risk support recipients – The
  largest dollar recipients will be subject to an on-site audit in at least one state and
  higher-risk recipients will be subject to additional audits and verifications.
• Increasing program transparency – For the first time, results of verifications, audits,
  and speed and latency performance testing will be made public on USAC’s website.

• Sending letters to 197 applicants concerning areas where there was evidence of
  existing service or questions of waste. Bidders have already chosen not to pursue
  support in approximately 5,000 census blocks in response to the Commission’s letters.
• Denying waivers for winning bidders that have not made appropriate efforts to secure
  state approvals or prosecute their applications. These bidders would have otherwise
  received approximately $350 million.
• Publishing a list of areas where providers had defaulted, thereby making those places
  available for other broadband funding opportunities.
• Conducting an exhaustive technical, financial, and legal review of all winning bidders.