AT&T Urges FCC Rural Telehealth Transparency Action Before Hiking Cap; Sitka Seeks Increase
AT&T said the FCC should increase transparency in the rural telehealth USF program and take other steps to combat abuse before considering increasing a $400 million annual funding cap. The agency should make applicant funding requests public, as it does…
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in the E-rate program, and target support to "mileage based services to address" a statutory "reasonable comparability requirement," said the telco's filing posted Friday in docket 17-310 on a meeting with Wireline Bureau staff. AT&T "also discussed extending E-rate 'best practices' to the Rural Health Care (RHC) Program, including E-rate gift rules, bid evaluation criteria, eliminating discounts for voice service," and "allowing beneficiaries to be reimbursed directly" by the Universal Service Administrative Co. But Alaska's Sitka Counseling said the current funding is "inadequate to enable rural communities" to use the program to improve healthcare and lower overall costs. "The FCC should increase the budget for the rural health care support mechanisms to reflect inflation over the past two decades and increases in the level of support available from those mechanisms, as well as increased technology and telecommunications demands due to our [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] legal obligations, advances in telemedicine capabilities, changes in patient expectations and standards of care, and new demands from skilled nursing facilities," said a Sitka filing posted Monday.