The Federal Communications Commission’s Connected Care Pilot Program is “a welcome and critical step” toward advancing the progress of connected care, and the FCC should “adopt rules that will implement the Pilot Program as soon as possible,” the AHA said in comments submitted last week on the commission’s notice of proposed rulemaking.
 
In order to be successful, AHA said the Pilot Program should be grounded in core principles, including that its rules should maximize eligibility to ensure a truly diverse applicant pool, while establishing at least a partial preference for health care providers that serve rural communities. In addition AHA said the FCC should streamline the Program’s application process, post-application reporting requirements and performance evaluation metrics to minimize any additional administrative burdens, especially for providers with limited resources.
 
The AHA shared a number of specific recommendations, including to expand program eligibility to include both urban and rural health care providers and for-profit hospitals; provide applicants with sufficient latitude to design their connected care proposals in a manner best suited to their patients; allow program participants to report data on an aggregated basis; and retain flexibility to fund approved projects in varying amounts.
 
The FCC in July voted unanimously to approve a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish the $100 million pilot program.

Related News Articles

Headline
The AHA June 16 released a fact sheet with analysis on the impact to rural patients and hospitals from proposed Medicaid cuts by Congress. The analysis found…
Headline
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission June 13 released its June report to Congress that outlines recommendations for hospital and other Medicare payment…
Headline
Data from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that health care cuts under…
Headline
The Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health, with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration, will host a five-part learning series…
Headline
The latest video in the AHA’s series “Medicaid: Real Lives, Real Care” features Jennifer Clowers, regional chief financial officer of Our Lady of the Lake…
Headline
Adrienne Coopey, D.O., a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, discusses how a fully virtual…