FCC’s Telehealth Plans Reach Beyond COVID-19 Stimulus Bill Provision

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a draft order for implementing a $200 million telehealth program in line with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which President Donald Trump recently signed into law. The FCC hopes to start distributing awards within the month for projects that would help patients receive health services remotely under the COVID-19 program. Also in the draft order is final language for a pilot program that would make $100 million available for telehealth projects from the Universal Service Fund. 

Senior FCC officials noted they are hoping the Office of Management and Budget will use emergency procedures to approve the application form for the COVID-19 program given the special circumstances, no such allowance is expected for the pilot project. Money for the COVID-19 program will be available until it or the pandemic is exhausted. The pilot project is meant to run over the course of three years. In the interest of getting the funds out faster, the FCC plans to process applicants for the COVID-19 program on a rolling basis, making awards as applications come in, officials said. Awards for the pilot project will all be made all at once following a set deadline. Officials said, unlike with the pilot project, the process for the COVID-19 program would not involve a competitive bidding process and that they don’t anticipate any single award would exceed a million dollars, in order to encourage many applicants to participate. 

Another significant difference is that while the COVID-19 program would allow applicants to use funds to purchase connected devices for monitoring patients, the pilot project will not. Under both programs, funds can be used to purchase telecommunications and information services. Also, the COVID-19 program would cover 100% of the costs of a telehealth project while the pilot project would cover 85 % of total costs