Funding provided through the FCC’s Rural Health Care Pilot Program...
Funding provided through the FCC’s Rural Health Care Pilot Program (RHCPP) can help rural healthcare providers with the recurring costs of broadband access and helps construct broadband networks where coverage is unavailable, said Arthur Spies, project coordinator for the Iowa…
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Rural Health Telecommunications Program, in a letter to the FCC Monday. The FCC’s Wireline Bureau released a report last week that said the RHCPP, which funds 50 projects across 38 states, “provides fertile ground to help the Commission determine how best to reform the existing rural healthcare program, which provides ongoing support for telecommunications and Internet access services” (CD Aug 14 p11). The Iowa program, one of the 50 that receive RHCPP funds, is a consortium of hospitals in Iowa and South Dakota, along with the Iowa Hospital Association and the Iowa Communications Network (ICN), that connects participating hospitals through a dedicated broadband network using ICN infrastructure, Spies said. In describing the project and the program, Spies recommended the Wireline Bureau grandfather in urban hospitals that are part of RHCPP programs. “This will help support and sustain the consortia/network into the future,” Spies said in the letter. “We believe funding should continue as long as an urban site is a member of the consortium with rural health care providers” (http://xrl.us/bnmjdv).