FCC to award up to $400M for rural telemedicine

| | Health Exec | Precision Medicine

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will award up to $400 million annually under its new Healthcare Connect Fund to accelerate development of broadband networks supporting rural telemedicine and access to medical records.

The new fund, paid for out of the federal Universal Service Fund that assesses a fee on telecommunications bills, represents a transition from the FCC’s Rural Healthcare pilot program to a permanent program, with the agency expecting to begin accepting applications in late summer 2013. The pilot program showed that costs of rural broadband networks could be reduced by half through group purchases.

Eligible organizations, according to FCC, include public or not-for-profit hospitals, rural health clinics, community health centers, health centers serving migrants, community mental health centers, local health departments, post-secondary educational institutions/teaching hospitals/medical schools or a consortia of the above. Non-rural healthcare providers may participate but the majority of participants in a consortia must be rural.

In 2014, a new pilot program will test how to support broadband for skilled nursing facilities with up to $50 million available over three years.

Related Content

Pitching the business case for 3D printing labs in radiology
FDA issues first-ever clearance for OTC oximeter
Augmented reality company secures $15M in funding from Cleveland Clinic, Mayo, GE Healthcare and more
Merck to acquire Prometheus Biosciences for $10.8B
Johnson & Johnson scraps RSV vaccine after trial
Intermountain Health launches new biotech company

Around the web

Cardiovascular Business
Boston Scientific enters renal denervation market with acquisition worth up to $540M

Boston Scientific has announced another significant M&A deal, scooping up an Israeli medtech company focused on RDN technology. 

Radiology Business
Shift toward imaging outside the hospital could save billions

Harvard’s David A. Rosman, MD, MBA, explains how moving imaging outside of hospitals could save billions of dollars for U.S. healthcare.

Cardiovascular Business
FDA announces catheter recall for Johnson & Johnson PFA system due to stroke risk

The recall comes after approximately 3% of patients treated with the device during the early stages of its U.S. rollout experienced a stroke or transient ischemic attack following surgery. The expected stroke rate is closer to 1%, the FDA explained.