Chairman Pai's Remarks on Telehealth to the Health Innovation Alliance

From the outset of the pandemic, it was clear that we needed to do everything we could to connect patients with their health care providers. So back in March, the Federal Communications Commission immediately made an additional $42 million available through our Rural Health Care Program. We also waived socalled “gift rules” so that participants in the Rural Health Care Program could solicit and accept better services or additional equipment for telemedicine from their broadband providers. And thanks to Congress, we were able to do much, much more. As part of the CARES Act, Congress appropriated $200 million for the FCC to support health care providers’ use of telehealth services during this national emergency. Just days after the President signed the CARES Act into law on March 27, the FCC established the program. By April 13, the FCC had already begun accepting applications. We evaluated and approved applications on a rolling basis, and, by July 8, we had awarded all $200 million. In the end, we approved 539 funding applications from 47 states plus Washington, DC and Guam. Recipients ranged from community health centers to mental health clinics to non-profit hospital systems in both rural and urban areas of the country.