News

Source: FCCNews

Media Contact:
Anne Veigle
[email protected]

FCC CREATES ‘YOUR HOME, YOUR INTERNET’ PILOT TO RAISE
AWARENESS OF AFFORDABLE CONNECTIVITY PROGRAM FOR
HOUSEHOLDS RECEIVING FEDERAL HOUSING ASSISTANCE
Outreach to Include Helping Households with Application Process
—
WASHINGTON, August 5, 2022—The Federal Communications Commission today adopted
an Order creating the “Your Home, Your Internet” pilot program designed to raise awareness
of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) among households receiving federal housing
assistance. The one-year pilot program will test the best methods for helping consumers
receiving federal housing assistance through the Department of Housing and Urban
Development learn about the Affordable Connectivity Program and enroll in the program.

“Broadband is a necessity for American households, yet many HUD-assisted families lack
access to reliable, affordable, high-speed internet,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge.
“HUD is committed to ensuring that the people we serve have sufficient internet access for
work, school, health care, and other needs. FCC’s new pilot program will make it easier for
HUD-assisted families to access reliable and affordable high-speed internet, and I look forward
to working with Chairwoman Rosenworcel and the Commission to get more families online.”

The “Your Home, Your Internet” pilot program features enhancements that are designed to
help ease the application and enrollment process for federal housing assistance recipients.
State and local housing authorities, Tribal Designated Housing Entities, and other state,
regional, or local government entities, as well as community partners are eligible to apply for
the pilot. Pilot program applicants will be able to submit proposals for specialized ACP
outreach efforts, including promotional materials that are directed to federal housing assistance
recipients and organizations. Pilot participants also are encouraged to propose application
assistance tools which the Commission will evaluate. In addition, the Commission has set aside
up to $10 million to support pilot-related activities. The Wireline Competition Bureau will
provide more guidance on how to participate in the pilot program.

The Affordable Connectivity Program provides a monthly discount of up to $30 per month
(and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands) as well as a one-time $100
discount toward a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet. Under the Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act, a household may qualify for the Affordable Connectivity Program if at least one
member of the household meets the qualifications for participation in the Lifeline program.
Households that receive federal housing assistance are eligible for Lifeline and the Affordable
Connectivity Program.

Action by the Commission August 5, 2022 by Third Report and Order (FCC 22-65).
Chairwoman Rosenworcel, Commissioners Carr, Starks, and Simington approving.
Chairwoman Rosenworcel and Commissioner Starks issuing separate statements.
WC Docket No. 21-450

###
Media Relations: (202) 418-0500 / ASL: (844) 432-2275 / Twitter: @FCC / www.fcc.gov
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official
action. See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974

Source:  ATA

WASHINGTON, DC, AUGUST 4, 2022 – The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) today announced that it will convene hospital systems and medical practices, telehealth solution providers, patient advocacy leaders, policymakers, and other groups to commemorate the second-annual Telehealth Awareness Week™ taking place September 18-24, 2022. During the week, the ATA and a diverse coalition of stakeholders will host a series of events, publish educational resources, and highlight the value of telehealth in a hybrid care model that includes in-person and virtual care.

“Building on the important progress we have achieved to expand access to urgently-needed telehealth and virtual care services over the past two-plus years, Telehealth Awareness Week 2022 presents a critical opportunity to provide all communities with the resources they need to better understand the many ways that telehealth improves access to safe, quality care,” said Ann Mond Johnson, CEO of the ATA. “We have great momentum and support for telehealth – from the halls of government and the halls of clinical practice to board rooms and living rooms – and now we must leverage the right resources and create the right frameworks to support a successful hybrid model that offers both in-person and virtual care. One thing is now perfectly clear: Telehealth. Is. Health.”

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Source: AMA

By:  Kevin B. O’Reilly

What’s the news: The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly for a bipartisan bill that extends Medicare telehealth payment and regulatory flexibilities through the end of 2024. The House’s 416–12 vote last week is a manifestation of the massive support among lawmakers, patients and physicians to build on the gains of telehealth seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure it continues to be an accessible mode of care for the long haul.

Supporting telehealth is an essential component of the AMA Recovery Plan for America’s Physicians. You took care of the nation. It’s time for the nation to take care of you. It’s time to rebuild. And the AMA is ready.

Telehealth is critical to the future of health care, which is why the AMA continues to lead the charge to aggressively expand telehealth policy, research and resources to ensure physician practice sustainability and fair payment.

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Source: Live5 WCSC

By Michal Higdon

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – The state’s Broadband Office is using some new technology to try and get more South Carolinians access to internet – namely households with school-aged children.

It’s something that became pretty popular after the war in Ukraine – Starlink devices from Elon Musk’s Space X company.

“When SpaceX launches the Falcon 9 rocket, and a lot of us have seen that happen, they actually deploy about 40 satellites every launch,” Jim Stritzinger, the Director for South Carolina’s Broadband Office, says.

Those satellites form what SpaceX calls a constellation which creates internet service down on the ground.

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Source: Healthcare Finance

By: Susan Morse, Executive Editor

From broadened access to care to removing geographic and originating-site restrictions, the AMA wants flexibilities to be made permanent.

The House passed a bill Wednesday that extends telehealth flexibilities under Medicare that were initially authorized during the public health emergency of COVID-19.

The House of Representatives passed H.R. 4040, Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act of 2022. It now moves to the Senate for approval.

The American Medical Association applauded the House’s passage of the bill, which keeps telehealth flexibilities through 2024.

The bill would allow federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to serve as the distant site, that is, the location of the healthcare practitioner; it would allow beneficiaries to receive telehealth services at any site, regardless of type or location; it would allow any type of practitioner to furnish telehealth services, subject to approval by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and it would continue coverage for audio-only evaluation and management and behavioral health services.

WHY THIS MATTERS

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services allowed these flexibilities during the public health emergency to allow patients to receive care virtually when they were unable to get care in-person.

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Source: mHealth Intelligence

Researchers found that using telehealth to consult with pediatric infectious disease specialists can lead to a 32 percent decrease in antibiotic use in nurseries.

July 18, 2022 – Researchers found that using telehealth to conduct consultations with a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio helped reduce the need for antibiotic use among newborns in nurseries across South Texas.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio includes five professional schools and 7,200 employees. Its clinical practice comprises more than 2 million patient visits yearly.

As telehealth use skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have kept track of its effect on treatment and the extent to which patients benefit.

Keeping antibiotic use among newborn babies in check is important because the medications may have unwanted side effects, such as killing healthy bacteria that babies need to combat various issues, like gut problems and asthma.

“With unnecessary or prolonged antibiotics, the normal, healthy bacteria of babies is disrupted,” said pediatrician Joseph Cantey, MD, first author and consulting specialist for the study from UT Health San Antonio, in a press release. “Ten to 15 years ago, we treated all babies with the slightest risk of infection just to be safe. Then we started to understand the protection afforded by these normal bacteria. Now we are trying to be much more select with who needs to be exposed to antibiotics. Even a couple of doses at birth matter.”

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Source: CMS.gov – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Medicare Parts A & B

On July 7, 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that announces and solicits public comments on proposed policy changes for Medicare payments under the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), and other Medicare Part B issues, effective on or after January 1, 2023.

The calendar year (CY) 2023 PFS proposed rule is one of several proposed rules that reflect a broader Administration-wide strategy to create a more equitable health care system that results in better accessibility, quality, affordability, and innovation.

Background on the Physician Fee Schedule

Since 1992, Medicare payment has been made under the PFS for the services of physicians and other billing professionals. Physicians’ services paid under the PFS are furnished in a variety of settings, including physician offices, hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), skilled nursing facilities and other post-acute care settings, hospices, outpatient dialysis facilities, clinical laboratories, and beneficiaries’ homes. Payment is also made to several types of suppliers for technical services, most often in settings for which no institutional payment is made.

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Source: HealthCareExecIntelligence

Despite numerous bills to solidify telehealth flexibilities enacted during the pandemic, none have passed in Congress, leaving the future of telehealth access and adoption uncertain.

June 20, 2022 – The significant spike in the use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic was made possible by numerous legislative waivers that were quickly enacted as in-person care stalled. Two years later, many of those flexibilities are still intact, but their future is unclear.

Listen to the full podcast to hear more details. And don’t forget to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. 

Three telehealth legislation experts — Jacob Harper, an associate with law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Christa Natoli, executive director of the Center for Telehealth and E-Health Law (CTeL), and Ben Steinhafel, policy director of CTeL — discussed the current regulatory landscape for telehealth at the federal and state levels on the Healthcare Strategies podcast.

At the federal level, several bills have been introduced to make permanent or extend flexibilities enacted during the pandemic, including the CONNECT for Health Act and Telehealth Extension Act. One of the key provisions in these bills is eliminating geographic restrictions on originating sites for telehealth services.

But none of these bills have passed yet, though Congress did extend telehealth waivers for Medicare beneficiaries for at least five months after the public health emergency officially expires.

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Source: mHealthIntellience
By Anuja Vaidya

The guidance aims to answer common questions about providing audio-only telehealth services in compliance with HIPAA privacy and security regulations.

June 13, 2022 – The HIPAA Security Rule does not apply to care provided through traditional telephone lines but does apply to mobile technologies that leverage electronic media like WiFi, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) clarified in a new guidance.

HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released the guidance, which details how covered healthcare providers and health plans can provide audio-only telehealth services within the bounds of HIPAA.

HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, led to the creation of national standards to protect patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.
In April 2020, OCR issued a notification of enforcement discretion for telehealth amid the rapidly growing COVID-19 public health crisis.

The notification stated that OCR would not impose penalties for HIPAA noncompliance on covered healthcare providers “in connection with the good faith provision of telehealth during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency.”

Specifically, OCR said it would not penalize covered entities for using non-public facing remote products to communicate with patients, even when the technology and its use do not fully comply with HIPAA rules.

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BAMBERG, SC—The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Connected Care Pilot Program will
award $7,199,892 over three years to Palmetto State Providers Network, a consortium of health care providers led by Palmetto Care Connections (PCC), a statewide, non-profit telehealth network. “The last few years have made it abundantly clear that expanding telehealth programs to every corner of our state is of the utmost importance in advancing our public health missions,” said Governor Henry McMaster. “This funding will have an immediate impact on expanding access, quality, and affordability of health care statewide and will help bring us closer to providing immediate health care access to the fingertips of all South Carolinians.”

“This FCC funding represents the largest Connected Care Pilot Program award in South Carolina, and the second largest single Connected Care Pilot Program award in the nation,” said Chairman of the PCC Board of Directors Rick Foster, MD. “We congratulate Palmetto Care Connections and the health care consortium members on this extraordinary award and look forward to the positive impact that this pilot telehealth program will have on the health of underserved South Carolinians.”

“Palmetto Care Connections is delighted to receive this FCC Connected Care Pilot Program award on
behalf of six of our state’s health care provider broadband consortium members,” said PCC Chief Executive Officer Kathy Schwarting. “Our goal is that this pilot program will become a model for implementing remote patient monitoring and synchronous telehealth to improve the health and quality of life for underserved residents throughout the state.”

The funding will enable five Federally Qualified Health Centers and one hospital system to provide broadband internet access services, remote patient monitoring, and video consults to 5,000 primarily low-income South Carolinians suffering from chronic conditions and infectious diseases. In addition, the funding will provide health care provider broadband data connections, a connected care telehealth platform and data analytics to facilitate synchronous telehealth services for an estimated 18,000 patients in 13 counties, an overall average of 80 percent of which are low-income.

The consortium members that participated in the funding request are Federally Qualified Health
Centers – CareSouth Carolina, Eau Claire Cooperative Health Center, Little River Medical Center, Rural Health Services, and Tandem Health; and hospital system – Tidelands Health.

The counties that are in the health care organizations’ service areas to be impacted by the pilot
program are Aiken, Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Fairfield, Georgetown, Horry, Lee, Lexington, Marlboro, Newberry, Richland, and Sumter.

PCC’s telehealth pilot program is one of 107 projects serving patients in 40 states plus Washington, D.C. that was selected by the FCC for Connected Care Pilot Program funding.

Established in 2010, PCC is a non-profit organization that provides technology, broadband, and
telehealth support services to health care providers in rural and underserved areas in S.C. 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. PCC’s Digital Inclusion Program provides a digital device, digital literacy training and assistance with obtaining low-cost internet service for residents of rural and underserved S.C. communities.

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 for her leadership as a champion for rural health care and broadband access. The National Cooperative of Health Networks Association named Palmetto Care Connections as the 2021 Outstanding Health Network of the Year.