Senate committee OKs bill to extend telemedicine coverage to SNFs

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation advanced the Rural Health Care Connectivity Act of 2015 (S. 1916).  The bipartisan bill would amend the Communications Act to permit skilled nursing facilities (SNF) to apply for support from the Universal Service Fund’s (USF) Rural Health Care Program (RHCP). The USF’s RHCP provides funding for telecommunications and broadband services used to provide healthcare in rural communities. The Communications Act specifies which types of healthcare providers are eligible to receive RHCP support, and SNFs are currently not included. Now that the committee has passed the bill it will go to the Senate for future consideration.

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), committee chairman, introduced the bill earlier this year. “We must continue to work toward bringing healthcare to rural communities that don’t have the access and availability afforded to more urban areas, which is why I’m hopeful the full Senate will be able to consider this legislation without delay.”

When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) updated the RHCP and created the Healthcare Connect Fund in 2012, it proposed implementing a pilot program to examine funding SNFs. In January 2014, the FCC deferred implementation of the pilot program, claiming it needed additional statutory authority to allow SNFs to be eligible.